Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God #Chapter 395: Zi Luo's Past - Read Ascending the Heavens as an Evil God Chapter 395: Zi Luo's Past Online - All Page - FREEWN

Zi Luo Heaven, the first Heaven Level plane Gu Nan came into contact with, was actually a very special existence.

As the largest neutral trading plane in the Myriad Heavens, Zi Luo Heaven was filled with the shadows of all major organizations, many of which had set up their headquarters here or were even created here.

Everyone was used to Zi Luo Heaven's current appearance, but few people ever wondered who the Star Ruler of Zi Luo Heaven really was.

It was only after Gu Nan made such a big commotion this time and the old man slumbering in Zi Luo Heaven suddenly woke up and spoke that comment that many people realized there was such an existence.

"Zi Luo Elder? To think that even he returned." Duan Wenqi was also from that era, so of course he heard rumors of this person.

But those were merely rumors, because by the time he and Lu Wen became cultivators, Zi Luo Elder had long since fallen into a deep slumber.

In a rare occurrence, no smile could be seen on Lu Wen's face this time. Instead, it was full of seriousness. "Zi Luo Elder… He lived in an era much earlier than even Dream Immortal, yet he awakened at this juncture. It can't possibly be a coincidence."

Duan Wenqi couldn't be more familiar with the name Dream Immortal. This woman, who was older than both he and Lu Wen by a little over half a generation, was none other than Lou Wanying's mother. She was a powerhouse who once buried herself.

Duan Wenqi was silent for a moment before saying, "Zi Luo Elder's cultivation realm fell a hundred thousand years ago, and now even his astral world has become public domain, so what can he use to recover his strength?"

"Perhaps the reason he awakened now is also the same reason he might be able to recover his strength in the future," Lu Wen answered lightly.

Duan Wenqi couldn't help but freeze upon hearing those words as a figure immediately sprang into his mind.

By now, he no longer dared to underestimate Gu Nan at all—Wu Tian was stronger than himself, and the fact that Wu Tian couldn't do anything to Gu Nan meant that he would end up the same way.

To think that a weakling Star Ruler who just acquired his own astral world could actually wreak havoc in Realm Level planes at will. This surpassed Duan Wenqi's expectations.

……

Like Lu Wen, many others also pondered the reason behind Zi Luo Elder's awakening, because the first words he spoke after his slumber were way too targeted.

Thus, Gu Nan's reputation, almost like an inflated balloon, flew to every corner of the Myriad Heavens.

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He'd gone from a junior with a rising reputation to a big shot with an infamous reputation that no organization dared to underestimate.

This was, after all, a vicious character who could force the Star Ruler of a Realm Level plane to bow his head in apology, all while Gu Nan never once showed his face.

On the other hand, it was also because Gu Nan's name was tied to this legendary figure, Zi Luo Elder.

Almost overnight, this old man who'd been forgotten by the times was once again remembered by all the forces. They remembered his former glory, but they also remembered his fall.

Zi Luo Heaven was one of the most ancient astral worlds. In the earliest days, there were only four planes on the level of the current Thirteen Heavens, and Zi Luo Heaven was one of them.

Furthermore, Zi Luo Elder was widely known by his title, "peach and plum all over the world," which referred to how his students and direct disciples were everywhere in the Myriad Heavens.

Even the law with which he achieved Unified Dao was related to this point. But this also laid the groundwork for his fall.

Zi Luo Elder's law was related to "teaching," so he became an obstacle for Song Fei, the ruler of Academic Heaven, when he gradually drew closer to Unified Dao Realm.

Although the two's laws didn't completely overlap, as long as Zi Luo Elder existed, Song Fei's chances of breaking through to Unified Dao were pitifully small. No matter how much self-confidence Song Fei possessed, he still refused to take any risks with his own foundation.

So it wasn't a surprise that Song Fei eventually teamed up with Jiu Po Heaven, which was already at Unified Dao Realm, to set a trap for Zi Luo Elder, making his cultivation realm fall.

Next, before anyone else had time to react, Song Fei entered Unified Dao in one fell swoop. No matter how dissatisfied Zi Luo Elder's disciples and grand-disciples were, there was nothing much they could do.

This was a very dishonorable tactic, but then again, honor wasn't ever a consideration when someone's path to the great Dao was blocked.

"Nonsense, utter nonsense! Grandpa Song is such a kindhearted person. How could he ever do such a thing?!" Inside Academic Heaven, Yu Shuyun had bandages wrapped around her chest, but her face was filled with anger.

Yu Shuyun, who should've died in Heavenly Mansion World after being impaled through the chest by Gu Nan's fist, was saved by her senior brother.

"Of course Grandpa Song couldn't have done that. It's just baseless slander by some villains." Chu Mingxuan walked into the room with disdain on his face. "Nevermind that, though. The most important thing right now is to recuperate. Don't pay attention to outside matters."

Yu Shuyun was still a bit indignant, but she sat down peacefully under her senior brother's persuasion.

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Song Fei stepped into Unified Dao Realm too early, so not many people remembered what happened almost 100,000 years ago.

Moreover, after Song Fei's ascension to the ranks of the Thirteen Heavens, plenty of people were willing to help whitewash him. Plus, he himself wasn't really a wicked or evil person, so the secrets from back then were covered up. At least, not many people in Academic Heaven knew the truth.

From the bottom of her heart, Yu Shuyun didn't believe in this kind of nonsense. Instead, it was very easy for her to cast those thoughts aside.historical

When she sat down again, Chu Mingxuan continued, "We may have found the person who hurt you earlier."

"Who is it?!" Yu Shuyun immediately stood up again, grimacing in pain when she instantly aggravated the injury on her chest.

Chu Mingxuan helplessly pushed her back down and took out a scroll and handed it to her. On it was a painting of Gu Nan's saint clone from the battle in White Bones Realm.

Yu Shuyun had seen Gu Nan fight, and his abilities were quite recognizable. Plus, with Gu Nan's current reputation, it really wasn't hard to recognize him.

"That's right! That's him… Wait a minute, he's that Gu Nan?" Yu Shuyun also paid attention to this recent battle and instantly recognized the background in the scroll.

Chu Mingxuan nodded with a dark expression. "Yes."

His mood was somewhat heavy. If the person who injured his junior sister was Gu Nan, then it wouldn't be that simple for himself and the others to take revenge.

'Even if Master makes a move, there's still no guarantee… No, Master likely won't be able to kill him either.'

Even Daoist Monarch Wu Tian could only watch Gu Nan come and go in his own astral world. As long as Gu Nan himself didn't court death by running into certain large astral worlds, then who could capture him?

But Yu Shuyun didn't care about all that. She immediately grabbed Chu Mingxuan's sleeve. "Senior Brother, you have to avenge me! He killed Ah Bu and almost killed me!"

As she said this, Yu Shuyun's eyes almost spewed flames.

But Chu Mingxuan was slightly taken aback, then his eyes lit up. "That's right! Qi Bu also died at Gu Nan's hands! Let's tell the Graceful Academy about this matter and have them go after Gu Nan!"

The Graceful Academy was also the Confucian Academy where Qi Bu studied. Yu Shuyun stared blankly, then asked, "Will they… actually help?"

"Of course!" Chu Mingxuan's face was full of confidence. "Do you know what those foolish bookworms value the most?"

"…Loyalty and righteousness?"

"Wrong, it's face!"

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Gu Nan disappeared from everyone's sight after killing off a bunch of Star Rulers; no one knew where he went.

It wasn't like nobody knew—at least one person, insignificant to the point where no one knew about him, accidentally learned of Gu Nan's whereabouts.

"Ah Hua, where do you think we are?" Dong Xun hid in the underbrush, allowing the rain to freely drip down his head.

"My name is Fan Hua—"

"Then you're Ah Hua," Dong Xun licked his lips and casually interrupted, but his gaze was fixed in front of him.

Two people were cautiously walking over from that direction. They kept glancing around, as if they were looking for something.

However, Dong Xun's concealment was so good that not even the slightest sound of breathing could be heard. There was no way to detect him at all.

The instant the two walked past Dong Xun, Dong Xun suddenly lunged, plunging his knife directly into the neck of the person in front.

At the same time, he leaned his head forward, opening his mouth and biting the other person's carotid artery. Hot blood immediately gushed out.

In just a few seconds, Dong Xun turned himself into a bloody person, while two more corpses appeared in front of him.

"Ah Hua, where do you think we are?" The exact same question came out of Dong Xun's mouth.

"You lunatic, I told you this is not my world, I… Eh?"

The voice ringing in Dong Xun's head came to a screeching halt at a certain instant, dead silent as a figure landed in front of him.

"Self-taught genius?" Gu Nan looked around and couldn't help revealing an astonished smile.

Dong Xun was still smiling idiotically, like a fool people casually bullied, but the knife in his hand wasn't slow at all as he stabbed Gu Nan in the waist.

The knife released a crisp crack the second it hit Gu Nan's waist and instantly broke in half. The broken knife flew out a long way, stressing just how strong Dong Xun's strength was.

Dong Xun's simpleminded smile started to look slightly puzzled. He held up the broken knife for quite a while, seemingly unable to figure out why Gu Nan was perfectly fine.

Gu Nan chuckled as he looked at Dong Xun. "Want to kill people?"

Dong Xun just looked up in confusion.

"Want to see blood?"

"Yes!" Suddenly Dong Xun even started drooling, but his response was incomparably clear.

Gu Nan glanced at him with slightly deeper meaning. This Dong Xun was originally just a normal teenager who'd become somewhat neurotic after being infected by Rolensia's split soul.

Moreover, he was similar to Zhong Die, both having a strange obsession with blood.

The difference was that Zhong Die was obsessed with drinking blood, while Dong Xun simply wanted to see the image of blood spraying out.

The two corpses that fell at his feet were still spraying out blood continuously, but Dong Xun didn't do anything to them after killing them.

'The early stage of Rolensia's law really is bizarre.' Such an opinion emerged in Gu Nan's mind.

What Dong Xun was doing now was retracing Rolensia's path—if he could survive, that is.

Gu Nan formed a jet black dagger in his hand and handed it to Dong Xun.

Dong Xun subconsciously reached for it, but the dagger gently floated up and instantly plunged into his heart.

This sudden development didn't change Dong Xun's expression, as if he could no longer feel pain.

But after the jet black dagger sank into Dong Xun's body, the wound on his chest actually healed up as if nothing had happened.

"I have high hopes for you." Gu Nan smiled at him.

Dong Xun smiled back, still looking simpleminded and foolish. Only those who knew the human heart best could see the brutality deep in his bones.

"Go. Your journey starts here."

……

Time passed by one day at a time, and the rumors that were so rampant in the Myriad Heavens were slowly forgotten or replaced by new topics.

In the blink of an eye, another two years passed, and Gu Nan launched several successive invasions against other small planes, brazenly waging Divine Kingdom Wars.

According to the compiled statistics, Gu Nan already "visited" over ten small astral worlds during this time. Among them, Jin Lin World was the worst off, having already suffered four devastating blows.

Compared to the hundreds of years it took the astral world to develop, being bullied four times over a span of two years was definitely a tragic number.

And the reason there was no fifth time wasn't because Gu Nan was merciful. Rather, Classmate Jin Lin finally couldn't stand such torture anymore and resolutely abandoned his astral world.

Perhaps for him, being a rogue Star Ruler again was still better than being raised like a pig and harvested at Gu Nan's leisure.

Gu Nan also ignored him. He couldn't gain anything from killing Star Rulers, so it was better to just develop his own Divine Kingdom properly.

Plus, after two years, Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom construction also reached another stage.

Divine Kingdom Wars and the Crescent Moon World dungeon gave Gu Nan too many profits.

After two years of accumulation, the outside of the Evil God Temple was now accompanied by nearly ten structures of various colors.historical

All of them were Divine Servant Institutes.

Divine Servant Institutes were the Divine Kingdom's barracks. The diversity of troop types was the guarantee of victory in Divine Kingdom Wars. There was no way to cut down on such expenditures.

Not only did Gu Nan build a large number of Divine Servant Institutes, but he also constructed important structures that had to be skipped back when there was no money.

On this day, under the watchful eyes of an increasing number of apostles in the Divine Kingdom, the Evil God Temple violently expanded outwards as a strange aura emerged from the depths of the souls of everyone present.

Apostles like Lan Si and Shana, who already reached Tier 4, only felt that something was weighing down on their hearts, giving them a heavy feeling.

"Tier 7." Gu Nan sat atop the throne inside the Evil God Temple and slowly opened his eyes, but there was a deathly stillness in his gaze.

It was as if he was an aloof and distant god, gazing down indifferently at everything on earth.

After two years of accumulation, Gu Nan finally took that crucial step to advance to Tier 7.

In reality, he reached the required thresholds in terms of Evil Value, points, and structures a long time ago, but he'd been holding back on leveling up until now.

This was naturally because it was much easier for outsiders to discover the locations of powerful astral worlds, such as a Tier 7 Divine Kingdom.

The Star Rulers Gu Nan humiliated two years ago never gave up their search for Gu Nan's astral world, not even for a moment.

If they couldn't find any clues on it, they could still use the dumb method of manually searching every single plane. The probability of being found increased exponentially every time the Divine Kingdom leveled up.

Gu Nan's mind had always been very clear. He knew that the reason he was world-renowned absolutely wasn't because he was strong, but because he was good at running away.

When he could no longer run away, he either had to endure the losses or have enough strength to deter enemies.

And now, Gu Nan believed that he'd accumulated enough strength.

"My Lord, congratulations on leaving isolated cultivation after a successful breakthrough. Your miraculous skill is unrivaled, and Your Lordship will soon unify the entire Jianghu!"

A voice sounded beside Gu Nan, who turned his head in surprise and saw Shana standing there.

"Where did you learn all this?"

Perhaps because Gu Nan's reaction didn't look very satisfied, Shana couldn't help feeling a little flustered.

"A-A small plane…"

Gu Nan laughed in spite of himself and shook his head. There were many such martial arts style planes in the Myriad Heavens, so he didn't give it much thought.

"It's Nine Swords World, our newly-selected target plane," Yan Xiaoxiao appeared by Shana's side and explained with a light smile.

Immediately after, she continued, "Teacher, after your isolated cultivation this time… I'm afraid the location of the Divine Kingdom can no longer be hidden?"

"Mm, but there's no longer any need to hide." Gu Nan smiled as he checked the panel on his Evil God Temple, where a value was reaching a new high.

Divine Power: 1,050

Divine power was the single most important value in the Divine Kingdom gameplay, there was no "one of."

In the end, the Evil God game wasn't a base-building game. Although it offered an incredible number of playstyles, the official recommendation was always to strengthen oneself.

So even though the core of the First Round was the Divine Kingdom, the goal of the Divine Kingdom gameplay remained unchanged. It was still to enhance the player's own strength.

Just as all Star Rulers and gods could receive buffs from their own planes, players could do something similar.

And divine power was the numerical standard to measure the effect of the buff.

Gu Nan also had divine power when he first acquired the Divine Kingdom, but it was only in the single digits at that time, while it finally reached one thousand today.historical

Divine power was a very special value. It wasn't like points, which could be spent and earned again, nor was it like Evil Value, which never went down.

In fact, divine power was more like the MP bar in players' understanding. It was consumed during usage, but it would refill naturally over time.

What determined the upper limit of divine power was the Divine Kingdom's level, as well as the total strength of the Divine Kingdom's inhabitants.

On the other hand, what determined the speed of divine power usage and recovery was how efficiently Gu Nan could siphon power from the Divine Kingdom's inhabitants—Gu Nan had done as much as humanly possible on this point.

His Divine Kingdom was the former Immortal Demon World that Zuo Zuo left behind. This particular plane could collect half of the inhabitants' souls and directly extract their power.

This characteristic was a little too unreasonable… Well, this was also the reason Gu Nan went to all the trouble to take Immortal Demon World for himself back then.

"With around 1,000 divine power, I can suppress Tier 8 enemies outside. If it's inside the Divine Kingdom… then I can even fight Tier 10 enemies."

After advancing to Tier 7, Gu Nan's judgment of his own strength immediately went up a level.

With the Evil God physique, he could already fight Tier 8 laws head-on, except neither would be able to overpower the other. And with the addition of divine power, it was enough to completely suppress Tier 8 opponents.

If it was inside his own Divine Kingdom, then as long as they weren't greater god-level existences, Gu Nan welcomed all enemies.

If inside their own astral worlds, it wasn't uncommon for Tier 7 or 8 Star Rulers to fight Tier 10 enemies on equal ground. Gu Nan wasn't the only example.

Red was one such example—her own strength barely reached Tier 8, yet a powerful Tier 10 Star Ruler like Zuo Zuo could only manage to suppress her inside her own astral world, unable to kill her.

Another example was the earlier Daoist Monarch Wu Tian, who was a veritable Tier 8 Star Ruler. In the words of the Myriad Heavens, Wu Tian was an experienced powerhouse with the power of a Realm Level plane behind him.

Someone like Wu Tian could completely fight on equal ground with Tier 10 enemies inside his astral world without being at the slightest disadvantage.

Only a freak like Gu Nan could force Daoist Monarch Wu Tian to bow his head in his own astral world, Daoist Sect Realm.

This was because Gu Nan was all too familiar with the buffs astral worlds provided. From the player's point of view, this buff only increased the strength of one's laws and wasn't a comprehensive buff.

In other words, when the enemy didn't engage in fighting your laws with their laws and was hellbent on escaping, an impossible-to-catch enemy might still be impossible to catch.

As the Evil God Temple upgraded to Level 2 and as Gu Nan himself advanced Tier 7, the Divine Kingdom's essence also received a corresponding upgrade.

Gu Nan knew it was only a matter of time before the Divine Kingdom's coordinates were exposed. After all, it was impossible for no one to notice a major Tier 7 astral world.

Since this was the case, it was better to make good use of this opportunity… 'Classmate Rolensia, this is as much as I can help you!'

……

The Tier 10 god Rolensia mysteriously disappeared for two years—this matter already attracted fairly large-scale attention in the World of Gods.

Although it wasn't unusual for a god of Rolensia's level to not appear for several years or even decades, the fact that her followers and apostles couldn't contact her either absolutely wasn't normal.

But at this time, no one had realized yet what exactly Rolensia planned to do. Even the Goddess of Nature, who blocked Rolensia's path, had yet to realize Rolensia's plan.

On the contrary, in the Myriad Heavens Universe, far away from the World of Gods, the Thirteen Heavens big shots had already sensed something.

As Unified Dao powerhouses, they themselves had a certain degree of connection with the laws of heaven and earth, so naturally they could sense when someone was about to merge with a great Dao.

Thus, similar statements continued to ring out in all parts of the Myriad Heavens.

"Someone is about to enter Unified Dao Realm."

"Someone is about to enter Unified Dao Realm," Yu Lian also said the same thing to Xue Ren and added one more sentence, "Tell me the truth, do you have anything to do with this?"

"How can I have anything to do with it?" Xue Ren denied righteously. "It's not like I'm the one ascending to Unified Dao, and besides, I'm just your average, run-of-the-mill Star Ruler… Okay, fine, I arranged this."

Xue Ren faltered halfway through his lie as Yu Lian's glare intensified and finally admitted with a face full of helplessness.

In fact, the two had been good friends for tens of thousands of years. No matter how good Xue Ren's acting was, it was still hard to hide from the Star Ruler of Void Grotto Heaven, so it was better to simply admit it.

Yu Lian made a look of surprise and exclaimed with a little exaggeration, "Look at you! You can even casually arrange the creation of a Unified Dao powerhouse now?"

Xue Ren spread his hands, indicating that he had nothing to say about it.

"So, what did you come here for?" Yu Lian didn't expect to get any straight answers from him. Instead, she asked about Xue Ren's reason for visiting.

"I may or may not create some ruckus in the near future. When that happens, you'll have to cover for me," Xue Ren answered seriously.

"You want to help that Unified Dao powerhouse by directing people's attention elsewhere?" Yu Lian saw through Xue Ren's goal at a glance and thought for a moment. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just act mysterious when the time comes." Xue Ren revealed a bright smile.

……

The Myriad Heavens Universe was very lively these days.

The excitement from Gu Nan's sudden appearance and Zi Luo Elder's awakening two years ago hadn't even died down completely when news that someone wanted to ascend to Unified Dao Realm caught everyone off guard.

This was Unified Dao Realm! The supreme existences of the Myriad Heavens Universe!

For a while, everyone tried to guess this person's identity.

Some guessed it was Xue Ren, who was the "closest to the Thirteen Heavens." They claimed he'd been sharpening his sword for a thousand years and was finally about to take that step.

Other people guessed that it was the Zi Luo Elder, who'd awakened from a deep slumber and, once recovered, was about to point his sword at the Thirteen Heavens again.

Others guessed that it was Red Candle Heaven's Green Lantern Fairy, Wang Li of Severing Dao Heaven, the Cult Master of the Holy Luo Cult from Three Corpses Heaven… These were all powerful Tier 10 Star Rulers. No matter who among them ended up being the first to take that step into the ranks of the Thirteen Heavens, no one would be surprised.

However, just when people in the Myriad Heavens were discussing spiritedly, news suddenly came out from Extreme Sword Heaven.

The Sword Sect's Sect Master, Xue Ren, sent invitations to several fellow Daoists, inviting them to visit Extreme Sword Heaven to test their swords… Among those invited were top-tier Star Rulers like the Holy Luo Cult's Cult Master and the Green Lantern Fairy.

"To merge with the great Dao, to test my sword against the world!"

Although Xue Ren had no intention of revealing his cultivation realm, the meaning behind Xue Ren sending such a heroic invitation at such a juncture couldn't be more obvious.

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News that Xue Ren of Extreme Sword Heaven invited fellow Daoists to sharpen his sword spread throughout the entire Myriad Heavens almost overnight.

As long as there were Void Cutters who could see outside events, it was inevitable for everyone to hear the news. The birth of a new Unified Dao powerhouse would be a major event that would shake the Myriad Heavens.

But after the initial surprise, people felt that this was to be expected.

Xue Ren had been called the "closest to the Thirteen Heavens" for many years. This in itself was enough to show that his realm was only one step away from that level.

There was nothing strange about him finally taking this step. It was only a matter of time.

Of course, since Xue Ren hadn't yet admitted it himself, there was still another possibility.

Xue Ren set the date of the spar for half a month later, but only two days had passed before rumors spread that the Star Ruler of Weapon Martial Heaven, one of the Thirteen Heavens, had gone to Void Grotto Heaven's Yu Lian to verify the truthfulness of the rumors.

Many people knew about the relationship between Xue Ren and Yu Lian of Void Grotto Heaven, so Yu Lian was naturally the most obvious choice to inquire about Xue Ren's situation.

However, Yu Lian's attitude was interesting—she didn't say anything, let alone give any indication of her position, and simply said three words.

"Wait and see."

……

Within Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, the intense preparations for soldier production had reached the most critical stage.

After the Evil God Temple was upgraded to Level 2, Gu Nan was able to level up structures to Level 2. With the Divine Servant Institute, it could be leveled up twice, with more powerful soldier types.

For example, the earlier Dark Warriors and Ghouls could be upgraded into Dark Knights and Patchwork Monsters respectively, more than doubling their original strength.

Gu Nan had been preparing for Tier 7's advancement for two years and had long accumulated a large number of points. If he didn't sense that time was running out, he would've waited even longer.

Of course, it would still take some time to upgrade structures, manufacture soldiers, and convert these points into real combat power.

"My Lord, news spread like crazy in the Myriad Heavens. Lord Xue Ren of Extreme Sword Heaven will soon ascend to Unified Dao Realm, so he's sending out invitations far and wide to test his sword…"

On a rare occasion, Red Tail wasn't in White Bones Realm, but came to Gu Nan's side and personally reported the news.

She knew Gu Nan had some connection to Xue Ren and knew that this matter was so important that she had to come and speak to Gu Nan in person.

What she didn't expect was that, in response to what she saw as an earth-shattering event, Gu Nan merely revealed an odd smile. "Xue Ren? He's thinking of the same thing I am."

Red Tail didn't understand Gu Nan's meaning and could only ask, "Then should we…?"

"Did Xue Ren invite me?" Gu Nan asked after some thought.historical

"Yes, Elder Zhang Hui of the Sword Sect personally delivered the invitation." Red Tail hastily nodded; this was also one of the reasons she reported to Gu Nan in person.

"Accept the invitation and have him bring a message back—I'll be there, and also have Xue Ren help me invite another person."

"Who?"

"Rending Mountain Venerable of Mountain River World."

……

Mountain River World.

Mountain River World was only a small plane that couldn't even compare to those Realm Level astral worlds, much less… White Bones Realm.

That's right. As a Star Ruler who once fought with Daoist White Bones for the opportunity to ascend his astral world to a Realm Level plane, Rending Mountain Venerable had always compared himself against White Bones Realm.

Even if times were different now and White Bones Realm was already a top-tier Realm Level plane while his Mountain River World didn't advance but actually grew weaker, unable to even compare to its former glory.

But in Rending Mountain Venerable's heart, he never conceded defeat and was always thinking of turning the tide.

Unfortunately, others didn't see it that way. As the status of Daoist White Bones rose higher and higher, more Star Rulers were naturally willing to befriend him.

But on Rending Mountain Venerable's side, almost everyone who approached him were just bootlickers hoping to win some favors with flattery.

There wasn't much Rending Mountain Venerable could do about this besides sulk and curse at these people a few times in passing.

Until this day, he received an invitation from Extreme Sword Heaven and finally felt vindicated.

'The Sword Sect's Sect Master Xue Ren of Extreme Sword Heaven sent me an invitation to observe the ceremony!'

Although the invitation clearly wrote the phrase "sword watching," Rending Mountain Venerable didn't feel insulted in the slightest—in any case, even if Daoist White Bones received an invitation, it would still say "sword watching" at most.

"As expected of a big shot about to enter Unified Dao, he has good taste!" Rending Mountain Venerable exclaimed to the people around him with a laugh.

There were many bootlickers around Rending Mountain Venerable, but there were still people with discerning eyes among the Void Cutter subordinates.

"My Lord, that one from Extreme Sword Heaven has… no dealings with you. How come he suddenly thought of sending Your Lordship an invitation?" A middle-aged man dressed as a Confucian scholar next to him asked.

In fact, what the middle-aged Confucian scholar actually wanted to say was: "Just how high is Xue Ren's status? Why would he ever notice a small fry like you?"

But Rending Mountain Venerable didn't seem to understand what he was implying and replied with a smile, "Xue Ren must be very confident of taking that step, so he invited a large number of unrelated people to observe the ceremony. This is a show of extravagance!"

When he said the word "show," Rending Mountain Venerable practically had this is what a manly man is like written on his face.

The middle-aged Confucian scholar thought about it for a long time but still felt that something was wrong. However, he couldn't find the problem.

'Could it be that Xue Ren wants Mountain River World? But why would a powerhouse like Xue Ren be interested in a tiny Mountain River World…?'

……

Half a month passed in a flash. The time of Xue Ren's sword testing ceremony had arrived, and many Star Rulers gathered in Extreme Sword Heaven.

"Senior Gu Nan, please come with me," Gao Xiaowen said respectfully as he walked into Gu Nan's room.

With Gu Nan's current reputation, it was quite appropriate for Gao Xiaowen to call him "Senior."

But this was a little early. Gu Nan couldn't help but wonder, "The sword testing ceremony hasn't started yet, right? Does Xue Ren want to trade a couple blows with me first?"

Gao Xiaowen was shocked by Gu Nan's mysterious confidence, then managed to squeeze a smile onto his face. "Senior must be joking… Martial Uncle asked you to come over to discuss something."

Gu Nan nodded, then said to the Lan Si who came with him, "Inform Shana that she can make a move on that side."

Lan Si responded and left, but Gao Xiaowen looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Gu Nan flashed him a friendly smile. "I haven't slaughtered someone's entire family in a long time."

……

To host the sword testing ceremony, the Sword Sect purposely built a sword testing platform just for this event. Right now, the surrounding area was already filled with people, with countless Star Rulers among the spectators.

At the back of the sword testing platform, Gu Nan was meeting Xue Ren and the friend he brought along.

It was an old man with white hair and a wrinkled face, as if he could collapse at any moment.

"This is a venerable senior." Xue Ren introduced him to Gu Nan, "We usually call him Zi Luo Elder."

Gu Nan raised an eyebrow as his gaze instantly landed on this old man. He'd also heard of Zi Luo Elder's story.

An amiable smile emerged on Zi Luo Elder's face as he waved his hand. "This old man just came for a sip of hot tea. You guys discuss your matters."

Xue Ren also didn't care and nodded with a smile. He said to Gu Nan, "Originally, I just wanted to invite you to come for a stroll and help me put up a front when the time comes."

"But now it looks like you also have guests to entertain?"

"Mine's an enemy."

"Then you hold grudges for quite long." Xue Ren couldn't help laughing in spite of himself. He knew about Gu Nan's conflict with Rending Mountain Venerable, but that was just a trivial matter. He didn't expect Gu Nan to still remember it now.

Gu Nan thought for a moment and replied, "I have to find someone to kill. There's no other suitable candidate, so count him unlucky."

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Rending Mountain Venerable's conflict with Gu Nan wasn't quite an eye-catching matter.

Xue Ren even felt that the only reason he even paid attention to it was because of Lou Wanying, otherwise a busy person like him wouldn't have time to try and keep track of these trivial matters.

Rending Mountain Venerable was Lou Wanying's friend, despite the difference in age. After the Time Arena incident, he nursed a grudge on Lou Wanying's behalf against Gu Nan.

Later, when Daoist White Bones was rumored to be heavily injured in the fight over Nirvana Heaven's "inheritance" and White Bones Realm was attacked by seven planes, Rending Mountain Venerable was one of the invaders.

Originally, the seven attackers had agreed to advance and retreat together, but when Rending Mountain Venerable discovered that Gu Nan was also in White Bones Realm, he wanted to take a detour to deal with Gu Nan, then turn back to fight Daoist White Bones.

"What happened after that?" Zi Luo Elder revealed an interested expression, the smile on his face unspeakably amiable.

Gu Nan had already left by this time; he only came over to meet Xue Ren. Or rather, Xue Ren invited him over solely to introduce him to this old man.

Seeing the old man's interest, Xue Ren continued, "Gu Nan only left a Void Cutter clone in White Bones Realm. With this clone, he transmitted a portion of his true body's laws over and stopped Rending Mountain Venerable in his tracks."

Speaking of this, Xue Ren couldn't help adding, "Now that I think about it, he might already possess an astral world as early as then."

"He walked too fast." Zi Luo Elder sighed with emotion, his gaze also seeming to contain some laughter.

Gu Nan certainly walked fast; he was practically progressing at a speed hundreds or thousands of times faster than others. The speed of his growth was enough to make anyone's jaw drop.

"Is he someone's reincarnation?" Zi Luo Elder lowered his head slightly, but his mind wasn't slow in the slightest, hitting the crux of the matter at once.

"We're also looking for his past life's identity." Xue Ren was silent for a moment, then added, "He joined the organization from that side, so we suspect… He is the reincarnation of someone from that side."

Some astonishment finally appeared on Zi Luo Elder's face. "A god from that side reincarnated into the Myriad Heavens? How interesting… Could any of the gods in our organization glean information about his origins?"

Xue Ren, however, could only shake his head. "No. Of the gods who wield divine authority over shadows, we only know a single Sylvia and have never heard of anyone else like that."

That meant Gu Nan probably even changed his original law… Then how could they even start looking for his origins?

"Then forget it." The smile reappeared on Zi Luo Elder's face. "Let Gu Nan cause chaos as he pleases. There must not be any mistakes with Rolensia's matter."

……

Under the sword testing platform, the Star Rulers had already settled down one by one, waiting for those powerful figures to show up.

The large and small Star Rulers Xue Ren invited over this time added up to hundreds of people, especially those at Realm Level or above, who were all sent invitations.

In the face of an invitation from a powerhouse who might soon enter Unified Dao Realm, these Star Rulers certainly didn't have their usual reserved, aloof air.

As long as they weren't occupied by a pressing matter and truly couldn't get away, almost everyone who received an invitation personally rushed to Extreme Sword Heaven to observe the ceremony.

Xue Ren also didn't make the crowd wait for too long. His figure appeared on the sword testing platform as he cupped his hands at the spectators. "This humble one recently received an unexpected enlightenment and wishes to verify it with everyone… Brother Wang?"

As his words fell, a man also appeared at the same time. From his appearance, he seemed to be in his thirties. There wasn't much of an expression on his face, and he held a long blade in his right hand.

Severing Dao Heaven's Wang Li, an unparalleled powerhouse who became a powerful Star Ruler through the blade Dao. If not for that one in Weapon Martial Heaven who also used a blade, he would rightfully be the number one blademaster in the Myriad Heavens.historical

"Come," Wang Li merely said one word after he appeared, but his voice instantly spread throughout the entire sword testing platform and below.

The Star Rulers below the platform immediately fell silent, because everyone seemed to see a clear, cold blade energy gently arc around them.

Wang Li clearly only spoke one word, but it put a terrifying pressure on the Star Rulers.

Unlike Xue Ren, Wang Li was the most traditional kind of blademaster. His martial path was the blade of the heart, true to the saying the "blade goes wherever the heart goes." His blade intent was strong enough to sever mountains and rivers.

"Okay." Xue Ren also smiled; the longsword in his hand had already thrust out.

No one imagined that these two would attack so decisively. It was simply too inconsistent with their statuses.

Xue Ren's sword style was the very same Wave Sword that he became famous for. But the Wave Sword used by Xue Ren was too different from Qu Hongye's.

A sword thrust out. Xue Ren's entire body seemed to merge with the sword, then scattered into a huge sword cloud.

Every position was Xue Ren inside this sword cloud, yet Xue Ren didn't exist in any position. The location of his sword couldn't be predicted.

Wang Li's expression remained unchanged. He gently raised his long blade and actually stabbed it out like a longsword, with the tip of the blade randomly pointing at a certain point in the sword cloud.

In this instant, something in space seemed to be torn apart. The sword cloud collapsed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and for a while, it seemed like a black hole appeared on the sword testing platform.

But the next moment, endless sword light cut through the horizon. The light was actually faster than the speed at which space collapsed, allowing it to drill out of the black hole.

Wang Li brazenly slashed out with his blade at this instant. The blade's afterimage, which was originally floating, seemed to have swelled up at once, as if flooding the whole world.

The peerless, tyrannical long blade fell, yet the sword light didn't flicker or dodge, simply allowing the slash to land. Indeed, the long blade couldn't block the sword light. The latter hit Wang Li unhindered.

"Sword light is also light… You let me win." Xue Ren reappeared, smiling at Wang Li.

From his words, it seemed that the two actually decided victory and defeat in this moment.

Wang Li thought for a moment with a wooden expression and said, "Very strong, but still not enough."

"That's why I need you guys to help," Xue Ren understood his meaning and casually responded.

Wang Li nodded, more or less agreeing with him. Below the sword testing platform, the voices of discussion rang out again—it couldn't be helped since many people didn't actually understand the exchange between these two.

True, the two had high cultivation realms, but wasn't this a little too outrageous?

Many famous Star Rulers were swearing in their hearts. 'I don't even understand what these two just did, so how the hell can I explain it to my disciples and descendants?'

'Star Rulers who use swords or blades really are annoying!'

Outside of Extreme Sword Heaven, some of the big names in the Thirteen Heavens were also watching this spar.

After all, once Xue Ren broke through, he would be on the same level of existence as them, so it was reasonable to give Xue Ren the necessary attention.

Within Void Grotto Heaven, Yu Lian had a new guest. This person was dressed in a gorgeous long gown, with a short blade hanging from his waist. Its sheath was full of gems, crystals, and other decorations.

From the looks of it, this youth with a short blade appeared very much like a nouveau riche, no different from the hedonistic young masters of the secular world.

But only those who knew his identity would know just how terrifying this youth was.

He was none other than one of the Thirteen Heavens—Zou Jiming, the Star Ruler of Weapon Martial Heaven.

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Zou Jiming was a very hated Star Ruler, especially since he was one of the Thirteen Heavens, which attracted even more hate.

Firstly, this was because Zou Jiming acted without scruples, and secondly, it was because his law blocked the paths of too many people.historical

Zou Jiming started his cultivation journey as a blademaster and walked to Star Ruler Realm step by step, yet he tried and failed to break through to Unified Dao Realm three times in a row, nearly injuring his foundation, and became the laughingstock back then.

Attempting to ascend to Unified Dao Realm was a very enviable matter, but if he kept failing, then he just became someone who overestimated his own capabilities.

In the face of such ridicule, Zou Jiming pondered the painful experience over a thousand years of secluded cultivation and finally realized that his own law didn't match his acknowledged path.

His Dao wasn't simply a blade; rather, it should be any weapon.

His blade, too, wasn't just a blade, but it could also be a sword, a spear, or any other type of weapon imaginable.

Thus, this genius blademaster who became famous at a young age resolutely chose to destroy his own foundation. Then he spent ten times as much time as he previously did to re-walk his entire path, once again reaching the edge of Unified Dao Realm and finally succeeding in claiming his great Dao in one fell swoop.

From a heaven-defying genius to a powerhouse who matured extremely slowly, Zou Jiming forcibly walked a path other people couldn't even finish in their entire lives twice, finally creating the legend known as Weapon Martial Heaven.

Of course, although his journey was legendary, like a huge, immovable mountain, Zou Jiming's ascension to Unified Dao practically blocked the paths of all swordsmen, blademasters, and martial arts cultivators, sharply increasing their difficulty in entering Unified Dao Realm.

This was also the biggest reason Zou Jiming attracted so much hate.

The day Xue Ren held the sword testing ceremony, Zou Jiming came to Void Grotto Heaven.

"He's not ready to enter Unified Dao yet. What exactly are you guys planning?" Zou Jiming stood in front of Yu Lian and asked rather rudely.

While others might not be able to tell whether Xue Ren was about to advance to Unified Dao, it was something that couldn't be concealed from the eyes of the Thirteen Heavens once Xue Ran revealed his powers.

Yu Lian didn't actually know what Xue Ren was planning either, but she plastered a faint smile on her face. "You'll know after watching."

Zou Jiming still wanted to say something, but then paused violently, his gaze landing on a certain small astral world in the Myriad Heavens with a slight frown. "Merely to help him? You guys are causing an excessively big fuss over a minor issue."

While continuing to maintain a profound, mysterious smile on her face, Yu Lian secretly but hurriedly focused her attention on that location and discovered an astonishing scene.

In an unfamiliar plane, countless grotesquely-shaped monsters were pouring out and forming an army, descending in batches to another astral world through a space passage created from some sort of strange power.

……

Under the sword testing platform, Rending Mountain Venerable was staring up at the platform blankly, wondering what just happened in Xue Ren and Wang Li's fight.

Unlike certain Star Rulers around him who also didn't understand yet still pretended they understood, Rending Mountain Venerable had always been very honest. He turned his head and asked a person beside him, "Daoist Friend…"

"Shhh!" The person next to him hurriedly shushed him and immediately closed his eyes in contemplation, as if he received astonishing enlightenment from the previous exchange.

No matter how straightforward Rending Mountain Venerable was, he still couldn't help casting this person a look of contempt. He was about to say something else when someone patted his shoulder.

He subconsciously turned his head and saw a familiar figure.

"Gu Nan?!" Rending Mountain Venerable recognized the person in front of him and spoke angrily, "You actually dare to appear in front of me? Last time, there was that scum Daoist White Bones to protect you, but let's see where you can run to this time!"

Rending Mountain Venerable was a Star Ruler who never knew fear. He wasn't even afraid of Daoist White Bones, so of course he didn't fear Gu Nan.

However, this was still Xue Ren's sword testing ceremony, so he didn't brazenly make a move. In the end, he still had some scruples.

But Gu Nan didn't have such scruples. He laughed in spite of himself and threw a kick at Rending Mountain Venerable.

Rending Mountain Venerable reacted very quickly and threw out a Mountain River Seal, as if a big mountain was pressing down on Gu Nan, but the result was completely unexpected.

This enormous mountain that fell from the sky couldn't even block Gu Nan's kick and was smashed to pieces.

"Impossible!" Rending Mountain Venerable blurted out, his mind so shocked that he didn't even think about dodging.

The last time he saw Gu Nan, the other party could only rely on some laws to barely stall him, but now Gu Nan could actually smash the Mountain River Seal with just his physical body alone?

What he didn't know was that now that Gu Nan advanced to Tier 7, he might even be able to fight Daoist White Bones to a tie, so how could a tiny Star Ruler like Rending Mountain Venerable resist?

But while Rending Mountain Venerable was frozen in shock, someone next to him couldn't bear to watch anymore.

"Amitabha. Today is the day Benefactor Xue attains Unified Dao. How can you be allowed to be this unbridled?" A large monk with a wide body next to him said, chanting the Buddha's name.

Although this monk said "Amitabha," his entire expression was fierce-looking, not containing an ounce of the Buddha's compassion.

His hand closed around something, holding up a monk's staff in front of Rending Mountain Venerable and blocking Gu Nan's kick.

Fortunately, this was just a casual kick cushioned by the earlier Mountain River Seal, or else this monk might not be able to block it.

"Gu Nan, you little thief, don't think that you can act wantonly just because you can force Daoist Monarch Wu Tian to lower his head." The great monk blocked with his staff and couldn't help sneering, "Can't you see what kind of place this is and how many Star Rulers are present!?"

Gu Nan didn't rush to attack and only asked, "Which astral world are you from?"

The monk figured that Xue Ran would never let Gu Nan go for making trouble right beneath the sword testing platform, so he wasn't scared at all and proudly answered, "This one controls Furious Buddha World. If you have the ability, then come find trouble for me!"

Gu Nan was now famous. The clamor on this side immediately attracted the attention of the surrounding Star Rulers.

"It's Gu Nan again."

"He likes to send people to some small astral worlds to wreak havoc. Who knows what his goal is?"

"What goal can he possibly have? He's just letting the power get to his head and running amok… I'm afraid he'll be attacked by an entire crowd the day his astral world's location is exposed."

"Haha, I can't wait to see that day."

This great monk's Buddhist name was Nuxin, a name he gave himself. He was a self-made genius. Hearing the surrounding discussion, Monk Nuxin's face became even more smug.

Although he looked simpleminded, in fact, his thoughts were very cunning. Other people were extremely afraid of Gu Nan, fearing his retaliation if they provoked him, but Monk Nuxin wasn't afraid.

He could see things very clearly. His own astral world was just starting out, so even if Gu Nan wreaked some havoc inside, he still wouldn't incur much damage.

On the contrary, he could take advantage of Gu Nan's current fame to make a big deal out of the matter, raising his own reputation and making it easier for him to recruit Void Cutter subordinates.

In the end, the overall strength of the astral world still depended on the number of Void Cutters inside.

Monk Nuxin managed to stop the joy from showing on his face with great difficulty, not the slightest bit afraid. Anyhow, this was Extreme Sword Heaven. As a guest invited by Xue Ren, the host couldn't simply stand by and do nothing as Gu Nan killed him.

"Give me some face. If you guys have a conflict, resolve it outside." True to his expectations, Xue Ren also noticed the situation here and immediately came over.

Monk Nuxin was confident his plan had gone off without a hitch and immediately bid goodbye to Xue Ren, preparing to return to his own astral world.

As long as he was in his own astral world, Monk Nuxin wasn't afraid of the other party. And Gu Nan's type of destruction that switched locations after merely firing one shot was just adding to his own reputation.

"No problem." Yet Gu Nan just nodded at Xue Ren, then grabbed Monk Nuxin's shoulder with one hand. "Come, let's sit down for a chat."

Then Gu Nan turned his head to Rending Mountain Venerable again. "You'll have to thank him."

Rending Mountain Venerable didn't understand. "Why?"

"His whole family died in place of yours."

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The Divine Kingdom Wars waged by Gu Nan had always been led by Shana and Lan Si.

Shana led members of the Raymond clan, while Lan Si led some of the Void Cutters in White Mist, as well as other Void Cutter Realm apostles.

It was the same this time, with the slight difference that Shana was accompanied by a small annoyance.

"Lady, aren't we going to Mountain River World? Why are we changing places again!?" Zhong Die followed Shana and exclaimed with a puff of anger.

Little Zhong Die possessed the origin blood and walked the player route. After two years of work, she'd already advanced to Tier 4.

She finally managed to leave secluded cultivation after much difficulty and was simply itching to test her newfound strength, but they had just arrived at Mountain River World when Shana informed them that they had to change the battlefield at the last minute.

"Target: Wrathful Buddha World. Depart."

"This is My Lord's order." Shana finally turned to Zhong Die after she finished instructing the apostles and subordinates. "His exact words were— 'You have to learn to switch lanes.'"

……

Under the sword testing platform.

As one of the current focuses of the Myriad Heavens, Gu Nan's every move was watched. The conversation between him, Rending Mountain Venerable, and Monk Nuxin immediately spread through their surroundings.

No one capable of entering Star Ruler Realm was a fool. When Monk Nuxin was stopped by Gu Nan, he immediately realized the other party's intentions.

With a slight change in his expression, he hurriedly sensed the situation in his own astral world, but the scene he saw nearly made him faint.

Wave after wave of troops were pouring into his Wrathful Buddha World, all coming from a strange astral world.

These troops were all bizarrely shaped, from heavily armored human legions to tentacled monsters with a single eye, floating in the air.

If Gu Nan knew what Monk Nuxin was thinking, he would've very kindly informed him— "That's called an Evil Eye."

Level 2 soldier type Evil Eye. Specializes primarily in long-range attacks, but neither would they suffer any penalties for engaging in close combat. Their attacks come with a large number of curse debuffs, so they were one of the most annoying troop types.

But Monk Nuxin wasn't in the mood to slowly understand these things. Rage and anxiety practically surged through his heart, and he wanted to return to his astral world immediately.

While he did want to use Gu Nan as a stepping stone to fame, he actually wanted to force the other party to engage in guerrilla warfare against him as a way to show off his strength… not like this!

If he could only watch as Gu Nan destroyed his astral world without being able to do anything to stop it, then he'd no longer become famous—he'd become a laughingstock instead.

"Let go of me!" Monk Nuxin bellowed as his whole body glowed with a golden Buddhist light, just like a real wrathful Buddha.

If not for the fact that the monk was bald, Gu Nan even suspected that he'd become a Super Saiyan if he just put some blond hair on his head.

But this was completely meaningless to Gu Nan, whose hand was already pressing down on Monk Nuxin's bald head. The far more sublime power of shadows poured out, completely suppressing all of the Buddhist glow in the blink of an eye.

Monk Nuxin stared at this blankly, as if he could scarcely believe that Gu Nan, who'd always fought using his physical body alone, actually had such high attainment in law manipulation as well.

"His astral world isn't far from reaching Realm Level." Xue Ren cast one more glance at Gu Nan and recalled Zi Luo Elder's "too fast" remark, agreeing with it even more.

In what might as well be the blink of an eye, he watched Gu Nan go from a normal Star Ruler and walk to the point where he could already touch the edge of Realm Level.

The smile on Gu Nan's face remained unchanged. He was already Tier 7, so of course it wasn't a problem to suppress Monk Nuxin, who was at most Tier 6.

The effect of suppression from a higher level was very obvious when using laws to counter the enemy's laws, which was also why Gu Nan generally only used his physical body against higher-leveled enemies previously.

After Monk Nuxin was caught by Gu Nan, the group of spectating Star Rulers naturally paid attention to his astral world. Moreover, a major movement like the invasion of a plane couldn't be hidden from them.

Extreme Sword Heaven was one of the main worlds, while Wrathful Buddha World was just a small astral world, so time flowed much faster in that small world than here.

So by the time the Star Rulers started paying attention to that side, Wrathful Buddha World had already become a wreck, and there were troops from Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom everywhere.

"This is…"

"It's Gu Nan's astral world!"

"He actually dared to reveal his astral world. He's got guts."

"Daoist Monarch Wu Tian can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

Unlike Monk Nuxin, the spectating Star Rulers didn't care just how much damage had been done to Wrathful Buddha World. They were more concerned about the place these troops came from.

This time, the number of divine servants Gu Nan deployed far exceeded those small-scale wars in the past two years.

So the army couldn't simply descend all at once. Troops were still falling in a steady stream, so it was easy to discover their source—the Divine Kingdom.

At this moment, countless people silently memorized the coordinates to Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom.

One should know that just yesterday, merely the words "Gu Nan's astral world" would've been information worth a thousand pounds of gold. Many great Star Rulers would be willing to pay for it.

But now, this information was openly revealed.

Daoist Monarch Wu Tian was one of the few Star Rulers who didn't attend the sword testing ceremony in Extreme Sword Heaven, but he was still paying attention to any news from that side.

Originally, he was absentmindedly paying attention, but he didn't expect to accidentally learn the location of Gu Nan's astral world, which almost made him jump for joy.

"Good! Gu Nan, you rascal, let's see if you still dare to come to Daoist Sect Realm to wreak havoc in the future!" Daoist Monarch Wu Tian clapped fiercely.

If Gu Nan still dared to go to other people's homes and engage in guerrilla warfare even after his own astral world's location was exposed, then others could do the same to him and wreak havoc inside his Divine Kingdom.

More importantly, Gu Nan offended too many people. In all likelihood, he wouldn't even need to go looking for anyone's trouble, and someone would soon come to his door to find trouble.

From the moment Gu Nan's astral world was exposed, various thoughts raced through all the Star Rulers' heads as they thoroughly analyzed the implications of this matter.

'I'm afraid it'll be eventful in the Myriad Heavens from now on…' Too many people simultaneously shared the same thought.

While everyone else was pondering what kind of changes the exposure of Gu Nan's astral world would cause, only Monk Nuxin wanted to cry but had no tears.

He didn't care where Gu Nan's astral world was, nor did he have the ability to go there and cause trouble. All he knew was that his own astral world's inhabitants were wantonly slaughtered in the blink of an eye!

Temple after temple collapsed, statues of Buddhas were smashed one by one, and countless monks in Wrathful Buddha World died at the hands of the divine servants.

The Dark Knights' iron hooves of oppression left the land barren, the Patchwork Monsters nibbled clean all living beings in sight, the Evil Eyes' Curse Ray cursed all enemies, while the Heavy Artillery Unit could take down a city with three volleys of gunfire…

These divine servants carried out the order of "leave none alive" to the letter, not even leaving a dog alive for Monk Nuxin. They passed through the land like locusts, leaving no breathing beings in their wake.

Thousands of years of painstaking work ruined in a few moments!

Now Monk Nuxin really did have a "furious heart[1]." The rage in his heart couldn't even be described with words. He began to crazily mobilize the power of his astral world to strengthen himself without regard to anything else.

'Even if I have to use up all my power, I must still snatch the slightest chance of survival from this powerful enemy's hands!'

'As long as I can return to my astral world, everything will—'historical

Bam!

Gu Nan's fist smashed into his stomach, and the astral world's power that Monk Nuxin just mobilized was shattered in the blink of an eye.

T/N:

[1] Furious Heart = Nuxin

Gu Nan just stood in Extreme Sword Heaven, watching indifferently as Wrathful Buddha World was slaughtered into oblivion.

A perfectly fine small astral world was instantly reduced to nothing because of Gu Nan's single order, and everything had to start from scratch again.

Monk Nuxin's eyes were practically bleeding as he glared coldly at Gu Nan. The destruction of his astral world was already irreversible; right now, he only wanted to drag Gu Nan down with him.

If he could watch Gu Nan die, then even if he couldn't make up for his loss, he could at least feel vindicated.

"Gu Nan, if you have the guts, then kill me!" Monk Nuxin shouted without cowering at all as he raised his head and put on a calm facade of having accepted death.

"Your perverse way of doing things has already made you enemies all over the world. Sooner or later, you'll meet a tragic end!"

Monk Nuxin wasn't actually a simple-minded fellow like Rending Mountain Venerable. He knew that he had nothing left, so he could only stand firmly on the opposite side as Gu Nan.

'The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and Gu Nan has so many powerful enemies. As long as even a single person can help me a little, then this much loss is nothing!'

It had to be said that Monk Nuxin's scheme was very shrewd. Just as his words fell, a new voice responded to him, "That is reasonable."

As the three words fell unhurriedly, another inexplicable will enveloped everyone present. Not even the Star Rulers could escape it.

A new feeling emerged in all of their hearts—they suddenly somewhat agreed with Monk Nuxin's words, as if something the mysterious voice deemed "reasonable" truly was reasonable.

Some Star Rulers with fast reactions immediately realized what had happened, because Wang Li had already demonstrated this kind of thing moments ago.

"Another great Star Ruler on the edge of Unified Dao?"

Xue Ren frowned slightly while a woman in green appeared next to him. She was none other than Red Candle Heaven's Green Lantern Fairy and stared at the horizon with a very unfriendly gaze.

"It's that old fart from the Graceful Academy," Green Lantern Fairy's voice came out, immediately informing the surrounding area of the visitor's identity.

Elder Fang—Fang Chaoyun of Graceful Heaven was also the head of the Graceful Academy situated inside Academic Heaven.

Fang Chaoyun was slightly weaker than Xue Ren and the others, but he wasn't much weaker than most Star Rulers at that level. Moreover, because he was affiliated with Academic Heaven, he actually wielded more power and influence than his peers.

Gu Nan also raised his head. Based on his calculation, the visitor's level was probably around Tier 10, having just reached the criterion for Tier 10.

Academic Heaven actually had powerful Tier 10 Star Rulers. As expected of one of the major astral worlds that ranked among the very front even within the Thirteen Heavens.

After saying the three words, however, Fang Chaoyun didn't immediately appear. Instead, he continued, "My disciple Qi Bu died at the hands of Mr. Gu Nan. I am here to seek justice for him. Mr. Xue, please understand."

Fang Chaoyun was the most "reasonable" Star Ruler among the Myriad Heavens. Even the act of seeking revenge followed a prescribed pattern to the letter.

It was normal for such a teacher to produce a student like Qi Bu.

Xue Ren's eyes narrowed slightly, but he was slow to respond, nor did he have any intention of letting Fang Chaoyun into Extreme Sword Heaven. Instead, he glanced at Gu Nan first.

If Gu Nan didn't want to meet Fang Chaoyun, then Xue Ren would immediately block Fang Chaoyun outside of his astral world.

With Xue Ren's position, he didn't have to fear Fang Chaoyun at all if he was determined to protect Gu Nan—except that way, Gu Nan's astral world might not be able to survive.

"Graceful Heaven?" Gu Nan revealed a cold smile, but his reaction was beyond everyone's expectations.

His figure flickered, casually throwing Monk Nuxin aside and directly stepping into a portal. The Star Rulers with fast reactions hurriedly checked and realized that he actually… went straight to Graceful Heaven!

"I'm afraid he's gone… crazy, hasn't he?"

"He really did go crazy!"

"Running to Graceful Heaven to make trouble? Elder Fang can kill him with a slap of his hand!"

Even Xue Ren was taken aback, then shook his head with a chuckle. Gu Nan, this fellow, indeed defied expectations. His actions were completely outside of common sense.

Next to him, the Green Lantern Fairy's eyes lit up. She and Fang Chaoyun were feuding. If not for her apprehension about Song Fei, the one backing Fang Chaoyun, she probably would've gone to Graceful Heaven every day to make trouble.

Setting aside the crowd's reactions for now, Gu Nan entered Graceful Heaven with one step and was greeted with a huge statue.

This was his first time in Graceful Heaven, and he also hadn't conducted any investigations in advance, but one thing was very clear—the centermost part of the astral world was often the most important place in terms of status!

At the center of Graceful Heaven stood a giant statue of an elderly man in a long gown. He held a scroll of classic books in his hand, looking scholarly and righteous.

Without any thought, Gu Nan stood directly in midair and swung a fist at the old man's head.

"How dare you!" A few roars came from below. A few Void Cutters in this academy had discovered Gu Nan's action.historical

But how could they stop it in time? They could only watch as Gu Nan's fist fell and the statue flickered with white light, as if a protective barrier had been triggered.

Unfortunately, this kind of mortal means was utterly useless against Gu Nan.

The barrier instantly shattered with a loud boom, and half of the statue's head was smashed to pieces by Gu Nan.

But after doing this, Gu Nan turned around and ran without saying a word, returning directly to his Divine Kingdom.

Such a large commotion immediately caused countless scholars to run out and then look up in astonishment.

"An-Ancestor's statue…"

"Ancestor was smashed! No wait, Ancestor's statue was smashed!"

Inside Extreme Sword Heaven, even more Star Rulers felt their jaws drop. Smashing a statue was nothing impressive and didn't really say anything about one's ability, but the problem was… this was Fang Chaoyun's statue!

'I'm afraid they'll be mortal enemies now…'

And it was even in a situation where Fang Chaoyun had spoken first, and during a time when Xue Ren sent invitations to the vast majority of Star Rulers, so the entire Myriad Heavens was paying attention to Gu Nan. Elder Fang lost face directly in front of every corner of the Myriad Heavens.

But how would Gu Nan deal with the repercussions? The rage of a top Star Ruler wasn't so easy to withstand.

Sure enough, almost as soon as Gu Nan fled, an old man with a livid expression suddenly appeared next to the statue.

His figure and appearance were no different from the statue, only scaled down. He was none other than Fang Chaoyun himself.

"Gu Nan, you little thief!" Even with Elder Fang's self-restraint, he still couldn't help swearing angrily, then ran directly into Gu Nan's astral world.

The reason he showed up in Extreme Sword Heaven was because the location of Gu Nan's astral world was exposed, and he was determined to seek justice for his disciple since Gu Nan could no longer move his astral world.

He never thought the other party would be so unbridled!

Within the Divine Kingdom, Fang Chaoyun's figure appeared over the Evil God Temple and announced with a dark expression, "Gu Nan, you killed my disciple first and destroyed…"

However, before he could finish, Gu Nan's figure suddenly emerged and threw a fist at him.

His response once again surprised the Star Rulers—faced with a powerhouse like Fang Chaoyun, Gu Nan still dared to make the first move.

Even if he was strengthened by his astral world, it hadn't even reached the level of a Realm Level plane yet. How could he dare to fight Fang Chaoyun?

Even Fang Chaoyun himself was amused. He didn't retreat an inch and wrote out the character for "suppress" with a wave of his hand, which fell towards Gu Nan.

He wanted to use this one character to directly suppress Gu Nan inside his own astral world.

The instant the punch was about to hit the "suppress" character, the sky went dark.

Strengthened by the astral world's power, shadows filled the sky and covered the sun.

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The sky went dark.

The moment the endless shadows emerged, all the Star Rulers who had their eyes on Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom felt as if the sky instantly darkened, turning from day to night.

Fang Chaoyun looked up. This kind of abnormal phenomenon capable of altering heaven and earth instantly raised his vigilance to the highest point.

In fact, he didn't need to be on the alert. The shadows flowing crazily through Gu Nan's fist made the power of this punch very clear.

The "suppress" character finally collided with Gu Nan's punch. The technique used by Fang Chaoyun, a Tier 10 Star Ruler, unexpectedly failed to suppress Gu Nan. On the contrary, the shadows grew stronger.

Gu Nan's punch didn't directly shatter the character, but the shadows on his fist seeped through, almost dyeing the "suppress" character black.

Sylvia once said that Gu Nan's shadows were very different from her own. The shadows from her knowledge were quiet and secretive, while Gu Nan's shadows had a bit more tyranny and madness bordering the edge of secretiveness.

A law's aura was influenced by the cultivator himself. Fang Chaoyun's characters were righteous and upright, but when it met Gu Nan's unreasonable shadows, there was the feeling of a scholar meeting a soldier.

Fang Chaoyun's gaze turned slightly grave as he stopped looking down on his opponent, waving his hand to write out another character.

This was clearly the character for "kill"!

Confucians respect heaven and earth, keep their distance from ghosts and gods, and walk the great Dao of humanity, so the Confucian "kill" represents the great momentum of the human world!

This character was created with Fang Chaoyun's full strength. Wherever the character went, it was as if a god had arrived. Gales swirled continuously, and the world changed color. But Gu Nan still responded with a punch.

Only this punch consumed even more shadows.

Fist and character collided again, and the "kill" character was also quickly dyed by shadows, turning pitch-black. The character for "kill," which carried the great force of heaven and earth, finally made Gu Nan suffer some injuries.

A faint crack appeared on his neck and rapidly expanded. Gu Nan looked like he was made of ceramic as his body began to shatter.

But Gu Nan seemed entirely unaware of it and followed up with another punch without a second thought, this time aimed at Fang Chaoyun himself.

Fang Chaoyun couldn't keep the look of disdain from his face.

'He's actually able to fight with me by relying on the power boost from his astral world; this is indeed a very astonishing thing. But if he believes that it's possible to defeat me just because of this, then that's a complete joke.'

'Although I used my full strength in that character just now, I can write hundreds of characters at full strength without any effort, but how long can he last?'

'It's clear that his astral world is just starting out. How much of his astral world's power can he afford to lose?'

After all, he was a powerful Star Ruler who lived for tens of thousands of years. Fang Chaoyun had experienced countless battles in his life, so his judgment of the situation couldn't be clearer.

However, he failed to notice that his two contaminated characters were still floating in midair, even now. They merely became transparent and indistinguishable, but they never disappeared.

Not only did they not disappear, these two characters even formed an inexplicable connection with the shadows in the sky. It's just that the momentum behind Gu Nan's punches was so strong that he didn't notice the anomaly.historical

Fang Chaoyun was very patient. Since he decided to wear the enemy down in a battle of attrition, he even switched his focus from offense to defense.

For every punch Gu Nan threw, he leisurely wrote a character to deal with it, and every character was different.

If not for the fact that Gu Nan was still able to use his astral world's power to give him slight pressure, this Elder Fang could've written an entire poetry essay.

Throughout the whole fight, it seemed like Gu Nan was fighting with all his might with every punch, while Fang Chaoyun was firmly holding the upper hand while looking like he was simply going for a stroll.

This was also in line with people's understanding of the two sides. That Gu Nan used offense in place of defense to last for this long under Fang Chaoyun's attacks was already quite good.

Only existences at Xue Ren's level or even higher could see the dark cloud over the two's heads darkening even further.

Thus, a soft sigh rang out from the depths of Academic Heaven, reaching every corner of the Myriad Heavens.

Fang Chaoyun clearly also heard this soft sigh, so he looked up suddenly, only to realize that the dark cloud above his head was clearly giving him an intense sense of foreboding.

'To think I actually failed to sense such a threat hanging right above my head and had to be reminded by my teacher all the way back in Academic Heaven?'

Fang Chaoyun suddenly felt chills on his back. He finally realized that Gu Nan was gradually increasing the power of his attacks, so much so that he was forced to constantly devote more energy to the battle in order to maintain his upper hand.

It was precisely because of this that he didn't even notice the great danger approaching him.

Fang Chaoyun's reaction couldn't be described as slow. He understood Gu Nan's entire plan in the blink of an eye, but unfortunately, Gu Nan, the one who set it all up, was inevitably faster than him.

As early as when the sigh rang out, he'd already brought all his movements to an abrupt stop, and the shadow in the sky suddenly fell down.

At the same time, the characters previously written by Fang Chaoyun lit up one after another, except they were all pitch-black and gave off a sinister aura.

Fang Chaoyun was instantly surrounded by hundreds of black characters; all his laws were sealed by the shadows, and the cloud of shadows fell down on his head.

Elder Fang could only face this inescapable blow head-on.

Both of his eyes glowed red, and he finally couldn't resist using his astral world's power to write a huge "seal" character with his raised hand.

The character for "seal" rose to the top of the sky, seemingly pushing the cloud of shadows away, but Gu Nan revealed a sneer.

He waved his hand, and the cloud of shadows suddenly broke apart on its own. Like all-pervading shadows, they passed through the "seal" character's surroundings, chinks, and gaps, blasting Fang Chaoyun.

Secretive and ever-changing—this was one of the most important qualities of shadows.

It took a while for the shadow bombardment to come to an end, and the black characters suspended in midair dimmed one by one.

Fang Chaoyun's hair was disheveled, and a cloud of crimson mist was in front of his chest. Clearly, he couldn't hold back a mouthful of blood.

However, Gu Nan actually wasn't in a hurry to attack anymore. Even with an astral world's backing, killing a Tier 10 Star Ruler in one fell swoop simply wasn't realistic.

Especially since the shadow cloud wasn't able to accumulate to its limit yet before someone interrupted the attack, while Gu Nan himself also didn't have much energy left—of the 1,050 divine power, he had only a little over 300 left.

But likewise, Fang Chaoyun's injuries would probably also require a few hundred years of recuperation to fully recover.

Such a battle was enough for Gu Nan to make a name for himself, so that everyone who wanted to come to his Divine Kingdom to cause trouble would think twice after seeing the consequences.

A green light lit up from the depths of the void and slowly shone onto Fang Chaoyun's body as a figure appeared beside him.

The visitor had the appearance of a young man, only his expression seemed particularly gentle, with less of the sharpness characteristic of youths.

"Teacher." Fang Chaoyun, who was quite heavily injured, struggled to get up after seeing the visitor and bowed respectfully.

The young man accepted his bow in its entirety before holding Fang Chaoyun and gently sweeping his student behind himself. He then looked towards Gu Nan. "Little Friend has injured my disciple. Care to give me an explanation?"

Academic Heaven's Song Fei, the most overprotective person in the Myriad Heavens.

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The 13 powerhouses of the Thirteen Heavens were known and praised for many qualities, but the most famous characteristic of Academic Heaven's Song Fei had always been his overprotective nature.

Song Fei had a gentle demeanor, spoke politely, and often gave people the refreshing feeling of a spring breeze. He almost perfectly fit the standard scholar template, except… he loved to stand up for his disciples a little too much.

He was already famous for this back when he wasn't even a Unified Dao bigshot yet, and he caused a lot of trouble for himself because of this.

But Song Fei still continued acting the same way even after ascending to Unified Dao, frequently bullying those weaker than him without any regard to his status.

In Song Fei's words, "You can curse me; I will not lower myself to your level. But if my disciple has been wronged, then I will seek justice without any regard to face."

Red Candle Heaven's Green Lantern Fairy had a deep grudge against Fang Chaoyun.

But she never targeted Fang Chaoyun and merely watched him walk all the way to this point because of Song Fei's existence.

Gu Nan also didn't expect Song Fei to actually help his Tier 10 disciple, even with his status. This was already akin to throwing his face on the ground and stomping on it a few times.

But in the face of a shameless Thirteen Heavens level figure, did Gu Nan have any way to resist?

Of course he did.

Gu Nan smiled. "I've no explanation to give. But whatever losses I suffer today, your disciples might just suffer the exact same losses two days later."

After a pause, he narrowed his eyes and added, "If worst comes to worst, I'll just abandon my astral world and start all over again. It hasn't even been 50 years since I walked from an ordinary person all the way here. What's there to fear?"

Song Fei was still smiling gently. "That means there's someone who will stand up for you? Let me guess, is it Yu Lian, or is it that meddlesome old man?"

Song Fei's voice didn't sound unnatural at all when mentioning that old man, as if he wasn't the one who screwed Zi Luo Elder over back then.

Gu Nan's expression remained unchanged and had no intention of replying, merely revealing an odd smile.

From Xue Ren sending invitations far and wide to Gu Nan trying to find ways to stall for time, it was now almost time.

Song Fei was a very intelligent person. Just from Gu Nan's attitude alone, he immediately associated Gu Nan's plans with the matter of someone ascending to Unified Dao soon.

But with the way Xue Ren fought earlier, he didn't look like someone who was about to enter Unified Dao.

Song Fei's thoughts resembled the myriad curves of the Yellow River, housing a thousand schemes in his mind. He smiled at this time and said, "Ultimately, Xue Ren has yet to take that final step. If matters turn sour, it's not impossible for this one to destroy his path to the great Dao."

"Amazing." Gu Nan gave him a sincere thumbs up. To decide to ruin a powerful Tier 10 Star Ruler's path with a mere sentence; this was indeed very awe-inspiring.

It's just that there was something mocking about how that word sounded when coming from Gu Nan's mouth.

Since he failed to sound out any useful information from Gu Nan, Song Fei's interest also faded slightly. With his status, there really was no need to speak so much with a child like Gu Nan.

However, at this time, a mysterious aura rose out of thin air, bringing the entire Myriad Heavens to a boil.

Song Fei's expression turned a little grave, and, no longer caring about Gu Nan's matter, his gaze seemed capable of piercing through planes, landing directly on a certain small plane.

Xue Ren, on the other hand, remained under the sword testing platform, his gaze likewise looking towards that small plane as the corners of his mouth curled into a smile. "Don't let me down…"

Beside him, the Green Lantern Fairy, Wang Li, and the others were all astonished.

Because this was clearly a sign that someone was about to enter Unified Dao, but Xue Ren was still standing right in front of them…

'Then who's the one breaking through to Unified Dao? And what does Xue Ren hope to accomplish by making such a scene?'

There was no need for them to ponder this further, because the aura that practically triggered a change in the laws of heaven and earth was becoming more and more intense.

By this time, anyone could discover the source of the aura.historical

"What is that place?"

"I don't recognize it. It seems to be a small plane."

"That plane doesn't even have a Star Ruler. Not even that, it hasn't even been discovered before… How can such a small plane possibly produce a Unified Dao powerhouse?"

The Star Rulers were bewildered, unable to understand what they were seeing. After all, it was a matter of course for Star Rulers to break through to Unified Dao Realm from inside their own astral worlds. Why would anyone run to an obscure plane?

"It's too late." In Void Grotto Heaven, Yu Lian was naturally also paying attention to that plane. At this time, she gave a light sigh.

"Blood and flowers." Zou Jiming frowned slightly, but he was able to determine the meaning contained in this aura and judge this Unified Dao cultivator's law inclination.

But a judgment was just a judgment. This result puzzled him greatly. Because in his impression, there had never been a major Star Ruler who used those laws.

'This person can't have appeared out of thin air, right?'

Under countless gazes, a red light suddenly emerged from that small plane and shot straight to the sky.

The red pillar broke through the clouds, and lotuses emerged on the horizon, as if countless rituals and music were being played, and the whole plane was filled with a festive mood.

This was the phenomenon that accompanied a cultivator's successful ascension to Unified Dao, carrying the congratulations of heaven and earth—like Yu Lian said, they were too late to stop it.

But ever since the red pillar appeared, the special power that surrounded it—which had a strong sense of worship and sublimity—was finally recognized at a glance.

"The power of faith?" Song Fei's expression finally darkened completely, and there were no longer any hints of a smile in his gaze when he looked at Gu Nan.

Fang Chaoyun likewise knew what this meant and immediately pointed angrily at Gu Nan. "You guys actually invited foreign gods into our world and blocked the paths of Myriad Heaven's cultivators from attaining the great Dao, you traitors!"

Wordlessly, Song Fei waved his hand and threw out a green light that headed straight for Gu Nan.

Faced with an attack from one of the Thirteen Heavens, by all rights, Gu Nan should be entirely powerless to resist.

And he very straightforwardly didn't resist—judging which situations could be fought and which couldn't was the player's job.

However, at the same time Song Fei made his move, the red pillar of light that broke through the clouds in that small plane seemed to have grown eyes, falling straight into Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom.

The red light collided with the green light and dissipated simultaneously. After the red light flickered slightly, Rolensia's figure appeared in front of Gu Nan.

The current Rolensia's appearance had undergone a great change. She wore a red mantle outside. The mantle was painted with strange patterns, and even her hair turned entirely crimson.

Gu Nan was familiar with this appearance, because in the player's extremely rare quest lines where Rolensia advanced to a greater god, she donned exactly this outfit.

There was no mistake. After over two years of seclusion, Rolensia finally took that most crucial step in the Myriad Heavens.

Now, instead of being called the God of Luxuriant Blossoms, it would be more accurate to call Rolensia the Ruler of Luxuriant Blossoms.

After Rolensia blocked Song Fei's blow, she first nodded at Gu Nan and said, "Many thanks."

Then she turned to Song Fei and Fang Chaoyun. "My name is Rolensia."

Song Fei nodded a little but didn't speak. If this Unified Dao expert from the World of Gods was very determined to protect Gu Nan, then there was no need to fall out with her.

Or rather, her foundation was in the World of Gods, so there was no such thing as mutual restraint. Here in the Myriad heavens, she could act without the slightest scruple.

Rolensia was the first ever greater god who could enter the Myriad Heavens.

Although Song Fei was shrewd, his disciple, Mr. Fang Chaoyun, was not the same.

This old gentleman had been upright all his life. Not even living for tens of thousands of years managed to change his nature, so he immediately spoke righteously.

"Nonhuman races will not have humanity's best interests at heart!" Fang Chaoyun bowed to Song Fei. "Teacher, that such barbaric foreigners entered our Myriad Heavens must mean they harbor wicked ulterior motives. Why not gather all the seniors—"

Before he could finish, a red light lit up on his body.

Song Fei's gaze turned slightly cold, but it was too late to stop it, so he casually pointed a finger, and a green light directly pierced Gu Nan's heart.

The two Unified Dao figures struck, and Gu Nan and Fang Chaoyun were hit almost simultaneously.

Gu Nan's heart shattered, while Fang Chaoyun's veins also burst. These injuries weren't fatal for them, but they definitely weren't light either.

Song Fei supported his own disciple's body with a light smile on his face, but he had no intention of backing down.

"Your Excellency Rolensia, both sides will only suffer more losses if we continue like this. Why don't we each take a step back?"

"Don't bother." Before Rolensia could respond, Gu Nan had already patted his chest, as if the gaping hole in his chest didn't exist, and replied with a calm expression, "Let's continue. Whoever gives in is a wimp."

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At this critical time, Gu Nan's thug-like declaration made it a little hard for Song Fei to stop halfway.

Although Gu Nan and Fang Chaoyun were both injured, in terms of vitality, Fang Chaoyun couldn't catch up to Gu Nan even on horseback, not to mention that he also sustained considerable injuries when fighting Gu Nan earlier.

Nevertheless, Song Fei was Song Fei. How could a figure on this level be shaken by mere words?

After he finished speaking, he flat-out ignored Gu Nan and Rolensia's reactions. Instead, both he and Fang Chaoyun disappeared in a swirl with a wave of his hand.

"In that case, the juniors' grudges should be resolved by themselves. Little Friend Gu Nan, you should be prepared."

In the end, Song Fei was a powerhouse who'd been in Unified Dao Realm for 100,000 years. If he wanted to leave, it was impossible for the newly-ascended Rolensia to stop him.

He left very decisively after seeing that nothing more could be done. Efficient, succinct, and uncaring of face—as expected of one of the Thirteen Heavens, Academic Heaven's Song Fei.

But in any case, the fact that Rolensia stepped into the realm of a greater god meant Gu Nan and the others' plan was a great success.

When Rolensia saw Song Fei leave, she turned to Gu Nan. "I won't remain on this side for too long. See you in Extreme Sword Heaven in three days."

After saying this, Rolensia also didn't dally and quickly disappeared from Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom. Gu Nan, on the other hand, rubbed his chin and pondered.

If his guess was correct, then he would finally be able to meet the core members of the Heaven-God Alliance in Extreme Sword Heaven three days later.

As the two Unified Dao experts retreated, this grand drama full of twists and turns finally came to an end.

Outside, countless Star Rulers who were watching Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom, waiting to see the outcome of this once-in-a-century battle, felt their eyes almost pop out of their sockets.

The battle between Gu Nan and Fang Chaoyun ultimately led to a stand-off between two Unified Dao bigshots. This was a scene that hadn't occurred in the Myriad Heavens for a thousand years.

Even more people were already considering Rolensia's identity, as well as the ramifications.historical

For Star Rulers and even the more knowledgeable Void Cutters, the World of Gods wasn't much of a secret, and many people had heard of Rolensia's name.

Rolensia's act of running to the Myriad Heavens to enter Unified Dao was akin to occupying a limited spot that originally belonged to the Myriad Heavens.

In Fang Chaoyun's words, Gu Nan and the others undoubtedly invited the wolf right into their house, damaging the interests of the entire Myriad Heavens. They were no different from traitors.

Both Gu Nan, who used the exposure of his astral world as a pretense to attract attention, and Xue Ren, who sent out invitations far and wide for a fake Unified Dao ascension ceremony in order to take the attention off of Rolensia, deserved the label of "traitor."

So the next day, the topic of "traitor" spread throughout the Myriad Heavens, and the front page of all the major newspapers covered the short fight between the foreign greater god and Academic Heaven's Song Fei.

Gu Nan and Fang Chaoyun, the two who served as the fuse for all this, were naturally also reported in detail.

This wasn't really surprising. In fact, even without the appearance of Unified Dao figures, the level of Gu Nan and Fang Chaoyun's battle was also worth the attention of the entire Myriad Heavens.

After all, powerful Tier 10 Star Rulers couldn't be seen at will.

……

Void Grotto Heaven.

"It's all thanks to your family's Xue Ren and that little fellow named Gu Nan this time. Truly, well done!" Zou Jiming saw Song Fei being forced back and laughed so hard that tears almost came out of his eyes.

Song Fei's reputation among the Thirteen Heavens showed a very obvious polarization.

Several Unified Dao existences, led by Jiu Po Heaven, had an extremely close relationship with Song Fei, while several others, including Zou Jiming, particularly detested him.

No matter what, it was a fact that he screwed over Zi Luo Elder back in the day; it was impossible for mere rumors to erase this truth from the memories of the Thirteen Heavens.

Yu Lian rolled her eyes in exasperation. "What do you mean by my family's Xue Ren? I'm seriously going to kick you out."

Zou Jiming hurriedly made a pleading face and showed an apologetic smile. He was also in an extremely good mood, or else he wouldn't have behaved like this in front of Yu Lian, whom he didn't really have a close relationship with.

As the Star Ruler of Weapon Martial Heaven, Zou Jiming was probably the person who most wanted to see Rolensia enter Unified Dao.

The reason was very simple—if Rolensia can run to the Myriad Heavens to ascend to Unified Dao, then Xue Ren can also go to the World of Gods to do the same!

With Xue Ren's title as the strongest swordsman in the Myriad Heavens, even if Zou Jiming was a Unified Dao powerhouse, he still felt some pressure. With Song Fei's precedent right in front of him, who the hell knows if Xue Ren would also go to such extremes in the future?

Without the pressure of Xue Ren chasing after him, Zou Jiming felt his entire body relax.

And his statement about this matter being all thanks to Xue Ren and Gu Nan was also quite an accurate judgment.

Without the two of them attracting everyone's attention, Rolensia's law fluctuations would inevitably be seen through by other Unified Dao existences the instant she entered that realm.

What was the most likely ending for a Unified Dao cultivator who was a complete stranger to everyone? Of course she would be attacked from all sides.

If they could combine their efforts to prevent an unfamiliar face from reaching Unified Dao, then no one in the Thirteen Heavens wanted to become the Fourteen Heavens.

After all, Rolensia didn't have any protection from her own Divine Kingdom when she ascended to Unified Dao on this side. She was completely exposed to outside attacks, which was also the biggest drawback of "breaking through in a different world."

It was precisely because Gu Nan and Xue Ren understood this point in advance that they could each use different methods to attract as much attention as possible and cover for Rolensia.

Due to these two's excellent performances, even the Thirteen Heavens were temporarily fooled. Until Rolensia succeeded in entering Unified Dao, they were still paying attention to Gu Nan's side.

This was also why Rolensia thanked Gu Nan.

……

In Clockwork Heaven, Duan Wenqi ran to Lu Wen's side with great enthusiasm, carrying a stack of newspapers.

"Gu Nan and Xue Ren are now completely infamous. I'm afraid they'll never be able to wash away the word 'traitor' from their reputations," Duan Wenqi remarked with a laugh. His mood had not been this good for a long time.

Lu Wen took the newspaper without comment and casually skimmed it.

As Duan Wenqi said, the majority of newspapers leaned towards accusing Gu Nan and Xue Ren of "defecting to the enemy's side" and harming the interests of the entire Myriad Heavens.

Even some of their past deeds were unearthed, making them appear almost wicked beyond redemption.

After all, it was impossible for anyone to have a pristine record free of blemishes.

Nonetheless, Xue Ren was still a figure on the verge of reaching Unified Dao, so the major newspapers more or less still had some scruples about criticizing him. Thus, more firepower was concentrated on Gu Nan's head. It was no wonder that Duan Wenqi looked so happy.

However, Lu Wen just shook his head with a light smile after he finished reading. "Why would Star Rulers like you and I ever care about outsiders' opinions of us?"

"In that earlier battle, Gu Nan has already proved that he doesn't even fear someone at Fang Chaoyun's level if inside his own astral world. In such a situation, just how many would dare to uphold justice on behalf of heaven?"

"What's the use of verbal criticisms when no one dares to actually attack Gu Nan?"

Lu Wen's words poured a bucket of cold water on Duan Wenqi's head. In fact, this should also have occurred to Duan Wenqi, given his knowledge. It's just that he was too happy earlier, so he didn't think of it.

Now that Lu Wen pointed out the flaw in his logic, Duan Wenqi's expression turned ugly.

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"Gu Nan… His astral world isn't even at Realm Level yet, but he can already fight Fang Chaoyun. If we wait until he grows further…"

Duan Wenqi's expression didn't look very good as he shook his head. "I'm afraid he'll have already stepped into Unified Dao before the Dream Immortal returns."

The Dream Immortal's return from the River of Time was already set in stone. Although Duan Wenqi's prediction sounded a bit exaggerated, considering Gu Nan's terrifying advancement speed, it was actually quite hard to say.

But the always calm Lu Wen revealed a wry smile at this time. "It's a little too late to say this now…"

"Why is it late?" A sinister expression flashed across Duan Wenqi's face. "As long as you're willing to make a move, you can kill Gu Nan effortlessly, and it might even be possible to kill Xue Ren."

Existences on the level of the Thirteen Heavens were never for show. As long as they felt the need, they would definitely take action personally, just like the unreasonably overprotective Song Fei.

If Lu Wen launched a sneak attack without regard to his face, he'd have very high chances of killing Xue Ren, let alone Gu Nan.

"Say I kill them—then what?" Lu Wen asked rhetorically, "Song Fei could've killed Gu Nan that day, so why didn't he?"

Duan Wenqi stared blankly, and only then did he spit out a name with a bitter look on his face, "Rolensia…"

That's right, the deterrent was none other than Rolensia. As long as Rolensia didn't return to the World of Gods, Gu Nan would be a cup of poisonous wine—pleasant to drink, yet there was also a price for drinking it.

Rolensia's Divine Kingdom wasn't on this side. In the worst case scenario, she could simply slaughter every inhabitant in one of the Thirteen Heavens and then leisurely run away. Who could stop her?historical

It was way too difficult to actually kill a Unified Dao powerhouse. The death of every Unified Dao existence was always after thousands of years of schemes before finally succeeding in one fell swoop.

"But she has to go back sooner or later." A trace of coldness flashed through Duan Wenqi's eyes. "When she returns to that side, let's see who can still protect them."

……

Extreme Sword Heaven.

When Gu Nan stepped onto this land again, a strange feeling suddenly arose for an instant, as if he was being watched.

He knew this definitely wasn't a hallucination, and people really were watching him.

When inside his own Divine Kingdom, not even Unified Dao cultivators could always keep an eye on him, but once he left the Divine Kingdom, his whereabouts could no longer be hidden from the bigshots.

Gu Nan couldn't help shaking his head with a small chuckle. He didn't expect to enjoy Xue Ren's treatment so early.

But such a feeling lasted only for an instant, because Xue Ren immediately used the power of his astral world to place Gu Nan under his protection and hide him from the gazes of the outside world.

In the next second, Gu Nan entered Sword Sect in a single step, and his figure appeared at the top of Sword Sect's mountain, where Xue Ren and Rolensia were both already waiting.

In addition to them, Gu Nan also saw several acquaintances.

Daoist Lingyang was undoubtedly present, and the one sitting on the main seat was an unexpected person—Zi Luo Elder.

"Little Friend Gu Nan, we meet again." Zi Luo Elder was still smiling, as if he was merely an amiable old man next door.

But Gu Nan knew that if his suspicions were correct, then this old man might actually be the founder of the Heaven-God Alliance and one of the first members.

Furthermore, if there was a position like the "President of the Heaven-God Alliance," then it would almost certainly belong to Zi Luo Elder.

The whole matter became clearer in Gu Nan's mind.

Zi Luo Elder probably already awakened many years ago; it's just that he never revealed himself to the public until now. It wasn't until Rolensia was about to ascend that he truly walked into the limelight.

Perhaps without Gu Nan and Xue Ren, the one covering for Rolensia would be Zi Luo Elder himself.

Gu Nan greeted everyone individually and waited quietly under Xue Ren's guidance for the rest of the members to arrive.

A few more Star Rulers arrived soon after.

Gu Nan recognized these people's identities. All of them were prestigious, powerful Star Rulers. Before today, Gu Nan never knew that they were also members of the Heaven-God Alliance.

The list he saw from Sylvia back then clearly only included some peripheral members, while the ones sitting here were the core members.

Gu Nan secretly counted. Excluding Rolensia, there were only eight Star Rulers in total here.

In other words, there were only eight core members of the Heaven-God Alliance from the Myriad Heavens' side.

"Since everyone has arrived, let's get started," after everyone had arrived, Xue Ren opened his mouth.

He looked around, and his gaze finally landed on Rolensia. "Recently, two major events happened in the organization. I'm sure everyone is aware of them. One is Rolensia's successful ascension to Unified Dao, and the other is—"

"The other is that we finally have a new core member after 6,000 years?" A woman beside Gu Nan finished for Xue Ren while covering her mouth with a smile.

This woman was dressed in a luxurious lavender robe, appearing somewhat like a mature woman. Her every move carried a different kind of charm.

This was Immortal Empress Taisheng, the Star Ruler of Imperial Glory Heaven. Imperial Glory Heaven was an astral world with a classic kingdom of immortals governance system, where each generation's Star Ruler would be decided by whoever inherited the throne. The competition among the royal heirs was even more intense than in Clear Profundity Realm.

Immortal Empress Taisheng looked at Gu Nan with a small smile. Naturally, everyone present knew what the latter had done the other day.

"That's right." Xue Ren coughed slightly. "Gu Nan helped considerably in Rolensia's advancement and even made an enemy of Song Fei over this. I trust that no one has any objections with promoting him to core member, right?"

The group of Star Rulers waved their hands and looked at Gu Nan with a little more kindness in their gazes.

Gu Nan nodded slightly. He knew all too well that having a major contribution was a must if he wanted to be truly accepted by the Heaven-God Alliance, while offending Song Fei an even better show of his loyalty.

If Zi Luo Elder was the founder of the Heaven-God Alliance, then the meaning of this organization's existence was also obvious.

They were trying to build a super organization that spanned two worlds, cultivating Unified Dao experts who belonged to the organization!

Unified Dao figures' relationships were linked in countless ways, but multiple Unified Dao powerhouses who belonged to the same organization was something that had never been done before.

Sure enough, after Xue Ren finished speaking, Zi Luo Elder got up and announced, "Rolensia is going to return to that side eventually. This old man invited all of you here today because he wants to tell you something."

He looked around the circle. "After today, the Heaven-God Alliance will be exposed to the eyes of Unified Dao cultivators. If any of you feel like the Thirteen Heavens suspect your identity, then you might as well come along with us to the World of Gods for a while."

Once Rolensia left, the Thirteen Heavens would no longer have any scruples, and it would be very easy to deal with the rest of these people here.

Zi Luo Elder's words made the crowd settle down at once.

They gradually sobered up from the excitement of Rolensia's ascension. The situation right now was definitely not considered a perfect conclusion, but rather a crisis.

But for everyone to abandon their astral worlds and run to the World of Gods by themselves…

The Thirteen Heavens might not lower themselves to the level of finding trouble for these people's astral worlds, but there were plenty of people willing to throw stones when someone's down.

The crowd fell into contemplation. Xue Ren was the first to take a stand, announcing with a light smile, "I'm definitely going to leave and lie low for a while."

"Ditto," this was Gu Nan.

Although they couldn't understand his words, his meaning was clear. Daoist Lingyang followed, "I'm involved in too many matters, so I won't stay here and take risks."

The remaining few people were still hesitating, but Zi Luo Elder spoke up at that moment, "You all can still think about it for a while. But before we leave, this old man has to collect a little interest for a certain event."

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Extreme Sword Heaven, Sword Sect's gates.

The core members of the Heaven-God Alliance had already dispersed, each leaving more cautiously than the previous one.

Ultimately, the only ones who decided to follow Zi Luo Elder and Rolensia to the World of Gods were Gu Nan, Xue Ren, and Daoist Lingyang.

The remaining four were either still hesitating or had made up their minds to remain in the Myriad Heavens Universe. At the very least, they couldn't leave so decisively.

Over the years, the four of them rarely participated in the affairs of the Heaven-God Alliance, so there was a low chance of their identities getting exposed. Hence, they believed they could try their luck by staying behind.

After all, not leaving meant merely the possibility of exposing their identities, while leaving would 100% expose their identities.

"They've all lived for tens of thousands of years. How come they're still so blind?" Daoist Lingyang chuckled slightly and shook his head. "As long as you're alive, no one can take away your astral world."

At this time, he was sitting with Xue Ren and Gu Nan on the top of Sword Mountain. They were enjoying the mountain breeze and drinking mountain wine made from the Sword Sect's clear spring.

"The destruction of one's astral world is akin to having ten thousand years of hard work go up in flames. How many people can be clearheaded in such a situation?" Xue Ren replied with a smile, then glanced at Gu Nan. "You really don't want a cup?"

While saying that, he even shook his wine glass at Gu Nan.

The name "mountain wine" was coined by Xue Ren himself, and it already became one of Sword Sect's specialties.

The clear spring on Sword Mountain naturally contained an overwhelming sword intent. When drinking wine made with this water, one can feel a strong rush even before it hits their throat.

Daoist Lingyang and Xue Ren were longtime friends who liked to come here to drink a bottle of mountain wine in their free time. This time, they also brought Gu Nan along.

Unfortunately, Gu Nan just waved his hand. In fact, he hadn't drunk alcohol for many years. After all, when players were playing a game, food and drink were merely there to satisfy one's appetite and nothing more.

Xue Ren didn't press when he saw Gu Nan's disinterest and laughed. "Gu Nan, it turns out you're the most carefree one. The construction of your astral world only took a few decades, so it wouldn't be a pity to lose it."

"That's true in theory." Gu Nan thought about it and said, "But if there's a chance it can be protected, then that would naturally be best."

For these Star Rulers, decades passed in the blink of an eye, but Gu Nan's entire gaming journey may not even add up to decades.

Speaking of ways to protect one's astral world from greater gods, Gu Nan actually did know feasible methods. There were items in this world capable of sealing an astral world, only those items were in the World of Gods.

In the end, Gu Nan was still most familiar with the World of Gods, but he didn't know if that item would still be effective in the Myriad Heavens Universe.

Daoist Lingyang nodded. "It will naturally be best if our astral worlds can remain undamaged. Zi Luo Elder's trip this time is precisely to protect our astral worlds."

"Oh?" Gu Nan raised his eyebrow. He seemed to understand something and laughed. "Then I look forward to seeing it."

……

Although Gu Nan said he looked forward to seeing it, he couldn't actually see it—because what transpired afterwards happened inside one of the Thirteen Heavens. Besides the parties involved, no one else witnessed it.

Song Fei was injured.

This news shocked the entire Myriad Heavens as soon as it came out.

Although many inferred from Rolensia's earlier ascension that a battle between Unified Dao existences was inevitable, it came way too quickly, and it was actually Song Fei who suffered injuries.

This was Song Fei! Even among the Thirteen Heavens, Academic Heaven was still one of the top ranked ones.

After confirming that the news came from the Thirteen Heavens and was most likely not fabricated, people's attention immediately shifted from Song Fei to another question.

Who injured Song Fei?

No news came out the day it happened, but by the next day, the entire matter's cause became clear to everyone, while they learned another piece of news.

The organization hidden behind both the Myriad Heavens Universe and the World of Gods—the Heaven-God Alliance—finally stepped into the limelight for the first time.

Song Fei was in Graceful Heaven, healing his disciple Fang Chaoyun, when he was injured by two people who suddenly descended from the sky.

One of them was none other than the recently-ascended Unified Dao figure, the Ruler of Luxuriant Blossoms Rolensia, while the other attacker's identity once again made countless people drop their glasses.

The one who struck was actually Zi Luo Elder!

This old man who slumbered for nearly 100,000 years actually participated in a fight between Unified Dao powerhouses as a mere Star Ruler!

And as the news continued to ferment, details of that battle were gradually revealed. Slowly, people discovered that Zi Luo Elder seemed to have played a rather significant role in the fight.

Admittedly, Song Fei did temporarily leave himself in a state of emptiness in order to help his disciple heal.

However, it was Zi Luo Elder who found the opportunity to take advantage of Song Fei's empty state, grasping Song Fei's weak spot every step of the way. Rolensia, on the other hand, only provided the power for the last blow.

In other words, Rolensia could be replaced with any other random Unified Dao cultivator, but Zi Luo Elder was irreplaceable in this sneak attack.

After this old man wounded Song Fei, he also left this sentence:

"I taught you everything you know. If you want to take revenge, bring Jiu Po and come find me."

……

"So it turns out Song Fei was also Zi Luo Elder's disciple. This is truly unexpected," Duan Wenqi sighed with emotion, a thoughtful look on his face.

He and Lu Wen never witnessed Zi Luo Heaven's original fall, but since they were still rather close in eras, they still knew something about the enmity between Zi Luo and Song Fei.

Everyone thought there wasn't much of a connection between Song Fei and Zi Luo Elder, and that it was purely because the latter got in Song Fei's path that he was schemed.

But as soon as this sentence came out, the label of "killing one's teacher" slammed onto Song Fei's head!

"It's a little strange." Lu Wen patted the Long Ling'er on his shoulder, instructing her to fly around on her own. "Zi Luo Elder doesn't seem like the type of person to say such things."

"You feel like he's being a little too arrogant?" But Duan Wenqi just laughed. "He clearly wants to protect the astral worlds of Xue Ren, Gu Nan, and the others, and have those words serve as a deterrent against anyone who might have ideas… I'm afraid these people will go far away very soon."historical

Lu Wen's eyes lit up and he suddenly said, "So that's how it is… People have referred to me as one of the Thirteen Heavens for so long that I even developed tunnel vision."

Those personally involved in the situation might not see as clearly as an outsider. Earlier, it was Lu Wen who helped Duan Wenqi see the big picture, but now that the matter involved Unified Dao cultivators and Lu Wen himself was included in the situation, Duan Wenqi was actually able to see more clearly.

"Right now, the known members of the Heaven-God Alliance are Zi Luo, Rolensia, Xue Ren, and Gu Nan. One Unified Dao powerhouse, two top-tier major Star Rulers, and a little monster who was able to injure Fang Chaoyun in his own astral world."

Duan Wenqi continued, "Now that Zi Luo put on such a show, even if Rolensia leaves, the Heaven-God Alliance will still have a fearsome reputation to act as deterrent."

Lu Wen nodded lightly, his fingers tapping continuously on the desk.

"If they really leave, then it'll be our chance." A smile appeared on Lu Wen's face, and he gently placed down a chess piece on top of another piece.

The lower chess piece instantly shattered, and its position was replaced by the one in his hand.

"Lou Wanying may be dead, but others are still alive. And there are people… who don't fear the Heaven-God Alliance."

"They're going to look for Gu Nan's trouble?" Duan Wenqi's eyes lit up and he asked at once.

"No." When Lu Wen withdrew his hand, that piece suddenly had an extra strand of sword intent on it. "It's Xue Ren."

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When Gu Nan's group of three saw Zi Luo Elder and Rolensia again, they were already in a frontline plane.

It was a great coincidence that their destination was, once again, Heavenly Province World—of course, it might not actually be a coincidence, and Daoist Lingyang expressed his responsibility for this coincidence.

After they greeted each other, Zi Luo Elder suddenly raised his head.

"Mad Fist is here, it seems that this old man's earlier show wasn't in vain." The old man had a smile on his face, seemingly happy with the latest arrival.

Mad Fist referred to the Star Ruler of Martial Sect Realm.

Martial Sect Realm was an old, well-known astral world, and its Star Ruler was named "Mad Fist." It was said that this was his nickname in his early years. After he became a Star Ruler, he simply abandoned his real name and used Mad Fist as his name.

Martial Sect Realm was a very special astral world. Although it was only a Realm Level plane, its Star Ruler Mad Fist's combat power even surpassed that of many Star Rulers of Heaven Level planes.

Unfortunately, Mad Fist was too inattentive to the construction of his astral world, so that his astral world itself was dragging him down.

At the same time, Mad Fist was also one of the core members of the Heaven-God Alliance. He didn't follow them over earlier, but now he most likely changed his mind.

"What did you say, old man? Didn't we agree to gather at this time? What, did you guys do something again?" After Mad Fist heard Zi Luo Elder's words, he actually looked surprised.

Gu Nan and Rolensia, who were meeting Mad Fist for the first time, couldn't help being slightly taken aback at his appearance.

Could this person be a true martial arts fanatic, so much so that he didn't even pay attention to the major events that transpired over the past two days?

"Alright, you can stop pretending." Xue Ren, who was familiar with him, came up and told Gu Nan and Rolensia, "This guy likes to pretend to be a martial arts fanatic, but his head is stuffed to the brim with schemes."

Mad Fist showed a coy smile. "Only those who wholeheartedly want to win are called martial arts fanatics. For the sake of victory, what's wrong with pretending to be a martial arts fanatic?"

"Makes sense." Gu Nan nodded at him.

"Right? Right?" Mad Fist seemed happy that someone else agreed with his view.

Rolensia remained silent, while Zi Luo Elder added, "Let's set off. Let's leave early and return early."

He looked at Gu Nan and the other two. "After this old man's earlier strike, not many people will dare to openly attack your astral worlds now, but there will still be some small movement."

Now that the Heaven-God Alliance walked into the limelight and even injured Song Fei, they immediately scared the Star Rulers who wanted to beat a drowning dog into setting aside their petty schemes for now.

No one knew whether the Heaven-God Alliance might make a comeback after some time.

If there really was such a day, then today's pleasure may well become tomorrow's bane.

However, as Zi Luo Elder said, although fewer people dared to openly jump out, there would still be people making small moves in secret.

……historical

Qinghe Realm.

As the largest trade-oriented astral world in the Myriad Heavens, Qinghe Realm, under the leadership of its ruler Zhong Qinghe, had always developed faster than astral worlds of the same level.

After all, if done properly, the potential of commerce was far greater than that of agricultural civilizations, and trade was the best and only way to circulate resources.

On this day, Zhong Qinghe was finishing up one of the Commerce Association's internal meetings when he was called by a vice president.

"My Lord, I made an appointment with your secretary last week. There are some matters I want to discuss with you," the vice president said respectfully.

"Old Zhou, why are you still being so polite with me? Take a seat." Zhong Qinghe casually greeted the other party and sat down, acting like they were very close.

Old Zhou showed a grateful look. "Lord, do you still remember that Lu Xinhuan took the Eldest Miss to the World of Gods, and the two of them ended up disappearing together?"

Zhong Qinghe nodded. "Xinhuan has most likely been killed already, what a pity… Little Die's life soul is still there, indicating that her life is safe, but her whereabouts are unknown."

"We found Eldest Miss," Old Zhou said at once.

Zhong Qinghe raised his head, the gaze he leveled at Old Zhou finally showing some surprise.

Old Zhou cleared his throat and reported, "Our forces in the Capital of Blood have been uprooted. But some of the traces left behind point to… Gu Nan."

"Gu Nan? Now that his astral world has been revealed to the world, you found Little Die inside?" Zhong Qinghe's expression remained unchanged.

"Your Excellency is wise," Old Zhou flattered Zhong Qinghe.

Zhong Qinghe had a calm smile on his face and said as if casually, "Then you guys can go bring her back."

Old Zhou stared blankly, then hurriedly said yes and left, but he failed to notice the strange smile on Zhong Qinghe's face as he left.

……

Gu Nan and the others passed through the dimensional wall and entered the World of Gods very smoothly. They barely ran into any obstacles.

In reality, no one would try to stop them. Wasn't it a little too stupid to try stopping a Unified Dao bigshot from returning to the World of Gods?

On the contrary, the moment Rolensia returned to the World of Gods, the original twelve greater gods sensed something at the same time, and a black-haired young girl in a long dress descended in front of them.

"Welcome back, Rolensia." The black-haired maiden seemed to want to give Rolensia a hug, only to be decisively ignored by the latter.

Xue Ren glanced at her and came over to Gu Nan's side. "Who is this one?"

"The incarnation of night, the Goddess of Darkness, Daisy," Gu Nan acted as the commentator and answered with little hesitation.

He knew many people suspected that he was from the World of Gods, and he had no intention of hiding this.

Let them guess. No one will guess the truth anyway.

The Goddess of Darkness Daisy, a top-tier god who ranked towards the front even among the twelve greater gods, personally came to welcome Rolensia's return today.

In fact, Rolensia's ascension was definitely a pleasant surprise for the Dark Faction.

Originally, seven of the twelve greater gods already belonged to their faction, and the Light Faction relied entirely on the might of the Ruler of Light and Justice to not fall into a disadvantage in wars.

Now that the Dark Faction had one more person, the situation in the World of Gods was about to change again.

Daisy and Rolensia's conversation didn't last long. Certain deeper-level matters wouldn't be exchanged during an occasion like this.

After separating from Daisy, Rolensia brought Gu Nan and the others back to her Divine Kingdom.

Compared to the Myriad Heavens Universe, where danger lurked everywhere, staying inside an allied greater god's Divine Kingdom was undoubtedly safe beyond measure.

"You're leaving?" Rolensia looked at Gu Nan with slight surprise. "Your Thirteen Heavens are able to influence some people on this side. It's dangerous for you to head out now."

Gu Nan, however, just revealed a small smile. "I know, but I really do have some matters to attend to."

Faced with Gu Nan's insistence, Rolensia finally nodded. "Sylvia said she wants to visit you sometime."

"I'll be back soon." Gu Nan thought for a moment and added, "As for Sylvia, you can tell her to wait for me in the Dragon Realm."

"Okay."

……

At the same time that his true body arrived in the World of Gods, Gu Nan's saint clone, who was hiding in a small plane, slowly opened his eyes.

"It's time to start the plan for the player army."

"But before that," Gu Nan's gaze fell back to his own astral world, "there are still some small bugs to deal with."

There, Zhong Die was staring at the two men in black that appeared before her with a bewildered expression.

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"Eldest Miss, please come with us," two men in black stood in front of Zhong Die, their voices respectful but resolute.

"Who are you guys?" Zhong Die tilted her head, her expression innocent.

The two looked at each other, and the one on the left stepped forward. "Shadow guards 356 and 357 under the Commerce Association greet the Eldest Miss."

Zhong Die blinked as it suddenly dawned on her. "So Daddy sent you guys… Can you tell him I don't want to go back yet?"

The man who opened his mouth shook his head. "You must at least go back and meet His Lordship."

"Then I won't be able to come out again." Zhong Die pressed her lips into a thin line, her expression full of regret. The next second, a red light flashed in front of her, and her right hand had already extended out at some point.

The red light came so quickly that the man in front of Zhong Die couldn't react at all, while Zhong Die's right hand had already plunged into his heart.

……

"Useless! They're all useless!"

Old Zhou's real name was Zhou Shi. His identity was similar to Lu Xinhuan's, and he was also one of the vice presidents of Qinghe Realm's Commerce Association. But at this moment, Old Zhou possessed none of the cool and reserved air of a vice president and was full of rage and frustration.

"You know full well that there's a group of vampires around the Eldest Miss, yet you guys still sent two trash over. Tell me, are you trash or not!"

Crash!

A porcelain cup was viciously smashed into the ground, signaling how Old Zhou's anger had reached the point of complete eruption.

His subordinates stood before him, their backs ramrod straight. Their heads were lowered, and they didn't dare say a word.

Old Zhou cursed that the two who took action were trash, and the people here who handled matters were also trash, yet none of them dare to refute him. To put it bluntly, he wasn't wrong.

Qinghe Realm's distinguished Commerce Association handled the entire mission, yet they actually allowed a spoiled young lady like Zhong Die to escape from their hands?

If this happened in the past, back when the Commerce Association had just expanded and was at its most militarized, they would've had to take responsibility for this failure by committing suicide.

What's more, it wouldn't be easy to find Zhong Die again now that they let her get away. She wasn't stupid. How could she still show herself when she knew people wanted to capture her?

It was only when Old Zhou grew tired from cursing that one person carefully spoke up, "Actually, we already used quite a few methods to lure away all the vampires around Eldest Miss… The two shadow guards were killed by Eldest Miss herself."historical

"Eldest Miss killed them herself?" That finally stunned Old Zhou slightly, and he frowned.

He also just received the news and didn't have time to learn the details yet. Only when he heard his subordinate's words did he get a shock.

Old Zhou had watched Zhong Die grow up. He knew better than anyone else just what kind of cultivation and what kind of personality she had.

Yet she was now capable of killing two Void Cutters after going to Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom?

Even if these two only just entered Void Cutter Realm, anyone capable of killing them would undoubtedly also have to be a Void Cutter…

That subordinate snuck a glance at Old Zhou's expression and continued, "Eldest Miss has already advanced to Void Cutter Realm, and she… seems to have already turned into a vampire."

Crash!

Old Zhou shattered the other cup on his desk. He was about to break into a cursing fit again when his mind felt a little dazed.

The next instant, a silver-robed figure appeared in front of him, while the corpses of his subordinates slowly crumpled to the ground at the same time.

When he looked closely, all of their heads had already been cleanly separated from their bodies.

"You…" Old Zhou got up abruptly. By the time he recognized the newcomer's identity, cold sweat dripped down from his forehead.

'Now that news has spread throughout the Myriad Heavens, the other party should've already gone to the World of Gods, so how can he appear here? No wait, this seems to be a clone…'

At the very least, Old Zhou was someone who often met various Star Rulers, so he quickly recognized the other party as a clone.

But what made him feel helpless was that even Gu Nan's clone could still kill Old Zhou easily.

"There's something I want you to do," Gu Nan's voice didn't contain any emotion and seemed incomparably natural, as if he was instructing his own subordinate.

Old Zhou hurriedly forced a smile onto his face. "Please command me. As long as this humble servant can do it…"

"I want a batch of space-time crystals. I'll give you three days to transport them to this plane." Gu Nan said indifferently, "Don't play tricks. Within three steps of me, not even Zhong Qinghe can protect you."

Old Zhou's heart was full of bitterness, truly hating the fact that he wasn't inside Qinghe Realm right now and just had to do his business in this small plane instead.

However, a vice president like him wouldn't be in headquarters most of the time, so there was nothing that could be done about it.

……

That Zhong Die could kill two Void Cutters by herself not only shocked Old Zhou, but even Gu Nan was a little surprised.

The player route was indeed powerful. Zhong Die, who possessed the origin blood, leveled up at a speed not much slower than normal players. At most, she just lacked direction.

But this also reinforced his idea of building a player army. He told Old Zhou to look for space-time crystals precisely to transport a group of potential seedlings to the World of Gods.

If he could have a player army in hand, he wouldn't be at a disadvantage in the next Divine Kingdom War with regards to Tier 4 forces.

No organization could resist the onslaught of a group of Tier 4 troops taking the player route.

Gu Nan originally intended to set this plan in motion and even had most of the seedlings ready but didn't have time to collect the space-time crystals yet.

Many people knew about Gu Nan's clone, and inside the Divine Kingdom, Red Tail, Lan Si, and even Yan Xiaoxiao were most likely being watched.

As soon as the saint clone revealed itself, it would be immediately captured.

While the clone was keeping an eye on Old Zhou in the small plane, Gu Nan's main body arrived at Dragon Realm in the World of Gods, where Sylvia was indeed already waiting for him.

"How did you know I'd be at this entrance?" Sylvia asked with slight curiosity when she saw Gu Nan arrive.

The World of Gods was different from the Myriad Heavens. Other than the several main planes, normal planes like Dragon Realm couldn't be entered or exited at will.

The space here was much denser, so there was no such thing as teleporting here at will, which was why normal planes all had fixed entrances.

However, Dragon Realm was also a well-known large plane and had once almost become one of the main planes back when the ancient Dragon God was still alive, so there were definitely many entrances.

"You only know this entrance, right?" Gu Nan didn't even turn his head back, slowly stepping inside Dragon Realm. "I heard Dvalin taught you a lesson before?"

Dvalin was the leader of the metal dragon clan, a dragon of considerable age.

When Sylvia was young, she once had a conflict with Dvalin. At that time, the old Dragon God was still alive, so the result was that they both had to smooth things over and make peace, which didn't end well for either of them.

The Dragon God later died, but Sylvia wasn't someone who held long grudges, so she hadn't thought of revenge for many years.

That is, until Gu Nan brought up this matter. She glanced at him in astonishment. "You even know about this matter?"

This was tens of thousands of years ago, and it was an infinitesimally small matter. Without personally experiencing that era, it was almost impossible for someone to know about it.

The look she cast at Gu Nan was colored with suspicion, and it seemed she could now narrow down her speculation about the other party's identity to a very small range.

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Gu Nan didn't know what she was thinking, nor was he interested in knowing.

Moreover, he wasn't about to tell Sylvia that not only did he know her past with Dvalin, every single player who has ever done the "dragonkin" system mission knew about it.

Dragonkin was one of the special races that players could reincarnate into, and this race was so much better than vampires.

In the end, vampires were only a half-undead clan belonging to the Dark Faction. It was already considered very impressive for a clan to have ten Legend Rank members.

But the dragon clan?

As long as they grew normally, any pure-blooded dragonkin would naturally reach Legend Rank upon entering adulthood. Even mix-blooded dragonkin were still much stronger than vampires.

Not only did the dragonkin retain the dragon race's superb heritage, but they also possessed the human race's short growth cycle, as well as the potential for unlimited evolution.

The moment he decided to build a player army, dragonkin was already a must-have route in Gu Nan's plans.

But he didn't come here solely for the dragonkin this time. Dragon Realm also housed an item that could temporarily seal a Divine Kingdom, which could perhaps be used to preserve his own Divine Kingdom.

"Then let's find trouble for Dvalin?" Sylvia sounded a little eager.

Even though she was a god with a somewhat poor memory, when Dvalin's name reappeared in her mind, she couldn't help but recall her past feud.

In fact, in the original game, the player needs to complete another mission before this where they'd meet Sylvia and have her recall these memories.

However, Gu Nan didn't have to go through such a troublesome process this time; he could simply tell her directly.

He needed Dvalin's blood plus the heads of twenty metal dragons to open the Dragon Tomb.

While it was possible to handle this matter without Sylvia, it'd be better to have the latter as a scapegoat so that Gu Nan himself wouldn't attract too many people's attention.

"No, we need to get something first."

……

Dragon Realm was a very large plane, where countless islands floated overseas, surrounding a vast continent in the center.

Similar to the setting in many fantasy novels, this continent was known as the Dragon God Continent, and legends often began here.

Of course the Dragon God Continent didn't only have dragons. Like all planes, the race with the largest population here was also the human race, which had astonishing reproductive abilities.

In the northwestern part of the continent, the Flame Dragon Empire, which was blessed by the Red Dragon, ruled over thousands of subjects there.

Within the Flame Dragon Empire, there was a distinguished Prince Charlie, whose fame was comparable to that of his legendary father.

"I'm looking for Charlie." Gu Nan took Sylvia with him and descended directly into the Flame Dragon Empire's imperial palace.

The servant who was grabbed by Gu Nan couldn't help but sound a little strained when he felt the tremendous pressure coming from the two strangers, "Un-Understood. I will inform him right away—"

"You just need to tell me where he is."

A few minutes later, Gu Nan was already standing in front of Charlie's door.

Sylvia pursed her lips. "If you want to find someone, as long as we disclose our identities, they'll naturally come to us of their own accord."

With Sylvia's status, she naturally didn't care for such a sneaky way of doing things.

But neither did Gu Nan enjoy pretending to be a pig in order to eat a tiger. It's just that it wasn't convenient for him to reveal his identity here.

Otherwise, it would seem too deliberate when he later went to Dvalin's territory again using Sylvia's name.

When Sylvia saw his lack of a response, she asked a different question, "What do you want with this mortal?"

"To have him pull out a sword for me."

"Oh! These greedy mortals will definitely take advantage of the opportunity to demand a high reward!" Sylvia looked like she'd been deeply hurt by this in the past.

Gu Nan just looked at her like she was an idiot.

After pushing open the door and entering, the two soon saw Prince Charlie. He was teaching a young girl to read.

"The sword in the stone has appeared in the westernmost land," Gu Nan didn't bother conversing with the two and simply said these words like an incantation.

As soon as his voice fell, his and Sylvia's figures had already disappeared.

All the way until they left, Prince Charlie and his little sister, Alice, were still in a dumbfounded state.

It was little Alice who came back to her senses first and said excitedly, "Brother! Did you hear that? There's a sword in the stone in the west! Two apostles even came in person to pass on the message!"

In the World of Gods, the legend of the sword in the stone has always been linked to a change in throneship, a symbol of the gods' chosen emperor.

And apostles coming to the door to convey the will of the gods was something that would only happen in fictional stories. They never thought such a scene would really appear in front of them.

Other princes might experience a wave of fear in this situation, but Prince Charlie was different.

The reason why Prince Charlie was famous was because of his majestic talent and military excellence. His taking over the throne was practically a given.

On the contrary, the emergence of the sword in the stone and the apostles visiting him were pleasant surprises.

……

"What is the westernmost land?" Sylvia asked curiously as she walked side by side with Gu Nan.

"The world is round. There's no such thing as the westernmost land." Gu Nan looked at her like she was a mediocre student. "West of the Flame Dragon Empire is Metallic Silver Island. Don't tell me you don't even know that?"

Sylvia froze. As previously stated, her knowledge of Dragon Realm definitely wasn't deep, and her geography was a mess.

But she at least knew that Metallic Silver Island was the lair of the metal dragons and Dvalin's residence.

……

A week later, Prince Charlie led his adventurer squad through many hardships, finally arriving at the outskirts of Metallic Silver Island…

And then they were stopped by a dragon.

"Leave immediately! Lowly humans, Metallic Silver Island is not a place you should've come to—"

Boom!

A lightning bolt fell from the sky and struck the metal dragon on the head; its huge dragon body fell heavily to the ground.

Charlie and others glanced at each other, but now that the gatekeeper fell so inexplicably, they didn't dare delay and hurried towards the center of Metallic Silver Island.

"Hey! A dragon struck unconscious by lightning—isn't this a little too comical?" Sylvia slowly walked out from the shadows, seemingly dissatisfied with Gu Nan's clumsy tactics.

Although manipulating adventurers for their own use was a tactic gods often used, they never made things this ridiculous.

"Metal tends to attract lightning. This is common sense," Gu Nan shrugged, talking about irrelevant theories while his feet already started walking inside.

But he suddenly stopped after only a few steps and stared ahead with slight surprise. "We're not very lucky; we ran into some trouble."

Dvalin was a troublemaker who caused countless problems. Thus, no matter what time, it wouldn't be strange to see people looking for his trouble.

But to run into the most troublesome person as soon as they arrived. One could only say that Gu Nan's luck was too good… Or rather, Sylvia's luck wasn't good.

By now, the Goddess of Shadows had also discovered who exactly was on Metallic Silver Island. Her expression changed slightly and she hurriedly said, "Something came up, so I'll take my lea—"

"Too late."

Sylvia was slightly stunned, then immediately heard an angry roar coming from the front:historical

"Sylvia! You ran out to seduce men again!"

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An angry female voice traveled over from Metallic Silver Island, her voice practically spreading through the entire island, especially the word "seduce."

Classmate Sylvia's face turned beet red at a speed visible to the naked eye, and since she was also afraid of arguing with that person and making herself an even bigger laughingstock, she turned around and tried to leave.

But as soon as she turned around, a wild figure appeared in front of her.

The newcomer was a girl with a ponytail wearing a leopard pattern skirt and holding a golden spear, with hard facial features that added a bit to her "tough guy" appearance.

Wrestling Goddess Karina, the Tier 8 god that players jokingly called the Amazon Valkyrie, with combat power that far exceeded that of her divine power. She was a famous violent woman.

But while violent, Karina also possessed incomprehensible tenderness.

She was the number one fangirl of the Ruler of Light and Justice, Austin, and since the Second Great War among the gods, she madly pursued that God of Light, even though Austin was not yet a greater god at that time.

"Sylvia, as Austin's little sister, how can you hang out with a man?" Karina glared at the Goddess of Shadows.

Sylvia couldn't help rolling her eyes as she twisted her head back. "Who I hang out with is none of your business."

Karina sighed, as if she was a helpless mother watching her naughty daughter. "You are, of course, free to like whomever. But before your older brother and I get married, you should live an honest, moral life."

Feeling like she was about to rip her hair out, the Shadow Goddess pointed at Karina indignantly and said, "My brother will marry you? You horny sow, stop dreaming!"

Gu Nan, who had never seen Sylvia like this before, couldn't help but look at the two in amazement.

Karina, this Valkyrie who was a little slow-witted, was also famous in the game, but what happened after she met Sylvia was a scene that even Gu Nan had never seen before.

In reality, in the game world, there weren't many missions about Sylvia to begin with. More often than not, the Goddess of Shadows was invisible to players.

As if a little ashamed of her cursing, Sylvia glanced at Gu Nan quickly, then hurriedly glared at Karina furiously.

But Karina didn't seem angry at all even when cursed at. Instead, she turned a little bashful. "Excessive enthusiasm is indeed one of my shortcomings. I would also like to overcome this, but every time I see Austin… Oh!"

Miss Valkyrie, who was deep in her fantasies, suddenly blushed and even forgot to finish her sentence.

But Gu Nan suddenly raised his head at this time, pointing behind Karina and shouting, "Austin!"

"Where?!" Karina turned back in bewilderment, then felt a pain in the back of her head where Gu Nan's fist just punched her.

Karina stumbled forward from the punch. Immediately afterwards, she lunged at Gu Nan with a strange scream.

Gu Nan fought her without hesitation. After the two of them exchanged several blows, Karina seemed entirely unaffected and laughed, "This man can fight quite well. Sylvia has a good eye this time."

"You shut up!" Sylvia had every reason to be angry. She was just interacting with some male gods normally, yet every time Karina bumped into her, she was labeled as "seducing" them.

"Austin!" Gu Nan pointed behind her again.

"Where?"

So Karina received another punch to the back of her head.

"Austin!"

"Austin!"

"Austin!"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" After receiving two punches to the back of her head, Karina, whose head was starting to spin, finally shouted angrily at Gu Nan.

"Austin!" Gu Nan shouted once again.

Thus, Karina turned her head again skeptically.

Wham!

Another heavy fist smashed down, finally punching the Valkyrie unconscious.historical

Gu Nan shook his right hand, which was a bit sore, and greeted Sylvia, "Let's go. Let's deal with Dvalin first. It won't take long for her to wake up."

Sylvia followed Gu Nan in a daze, as if she couldn't believe that Karina, the fellow who gave countless gods headaches, had been dealt with by Gu Nan just like that.

Of course Gu Nan wouldn't tell her that Karina has also caused countless players headaches, and finally, players came up with this method of temporarily knocking her out.

But that was all. It was practically impossible to kill this thick-skinned woman.

Karina wasn't an ordinary god; she had a big secret hiding on her.

One of the game's main quest lines was to help Karina ascend to a greater god. If the player wanted to help the Light Faction win the Fourth Great War among the gods, then this was one of the very few routes that could make it possible.

Once Karina, this cockroach who couldn't be killed, became a greater god, her strength would catch up with Austin, surpassing even Lady Daisy.

Let alone that Gu Nan was currently only Tier 7 and had a slightly lower level than Karina, even if he was already Tier 10, killing the other party would still be all but impossible.

Only when the player completed the Second Round would it be easier to go back and kill Karina.

But by that stage, the drops from the Valkyrie wouldn't be of much use to players anymore. At most, it would just satisfy some players' collecting hobby.

Gu Nan didn't care about the unconscious Karina on the ground. To him, Karina's appearance merely added a restriction to his current operation—to take care of the metal dragon clan before the Valkyrie woke up.

'I'll have to speed things up. It's just that it won't be easy to pin everything on Sylvia if I do that…' Gu Nan silently calculated in his heart.

"Which Excellency is descending on Metallic Silver Island?" An old voice slowly asked from the depths of Metallic Silver Island.

Gu Nan and Sylvia knew this voice all too well. This was none other than the old dragon Dvalin.

He originally thought that Karina's appearance would definitely make the two trespassers leave, but he didn't expect…

Gu Nan reached the very center of Metallic Silver Island in the blink of an eye. A silver dragon was flying around in the air. When he saw Gu Nan appear, he was first taken aback, then quickly swung his tail at the trespasser.

"Little Evan, stop!" Dvalin also didn't expect Gu Nan to move so fast. By the time he called out the warning, it was already too late.

Without even raising his head, Gu Nan casually grabbed the silver metal dragon by the tail and gave a light shake, instantly transmitting over a huge force.

The metal dragon Evan seemed to freeze. His enormous body stalled in midair. As Gu Nan swung his right hand down, the dragon also crashed to the ground with extreme force.

Smoke and dust filled the air. Gu Nan just standing in midair, still holding the tail in his hand, gazing indifferently at the figure before him.

It was a robed old man. Wrinkles practically covered his face, visible in his old age.

After all, dragons weren't natural-born gods. Even a long lifespan had a limit. Dvalin lived for tens of thousands of years and had now entered old age.

Evan, on the other hand, was one of his most promising clan members, as well as his direct descendant. Now, he was lying helplessly on the ground, his tail still held by the man in front of him like a mark of shame.

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Dvalin knew the person in front of him came together with Sylvia, so this visitor probably bore ill will.

But the old dragon had offended too many people in his lifetime, so he had ample experience dealing with people who came to his home to seek vengeance.

He spoke with a solemn face, "Your Excellency, this is Dragon Realm, and my metal dragon clan is under the protection of—"

"Joshua, I know," Gu Nan revealed a cold smile as he finished Dvalin's sentence.

Joshua, the God of the White Crow, was the god protecting the metal dragon clan. No normal god would be able to bring a dragon tribe under his command, and in fact, Joshua was a powerful Tier 9 god.

But Gu Nan wasn't too concerned because Joshua was a particularly lazy god.

He was powerful, treated his subordinates well, and also held grudges; he was a god you didn't want as an enemy. But the problem with the God of the White Crow was that he wasn't very interested in anything and was the type to drag out one day's work into three days.

If Dvalin sent a distress signal right now, Joshua probably wouldn't even look at it—nothing was allowed to disturb his naptime.historical

Dvalin instantly felt a little helpless at bumping into someone who wasn't afraid of Joshua. He could only reluctantly say, "Your Excellency…"

Gu Nan casually grabbed little Evan's tail and threw Evan directly in front of Dvalin, casually cutting in, "I just came to Metallic Silver Island to find something. I'll leave as soon as I find it."

"If you cooperate, everything will be fine. If you don't cooperate, your whole family will die, understand?" Gu Nan pointed at Dvalin and said.

As the head of the metal dragon clan for tens of thousands of years, when had Dvalin ever encountered such a straightforward threat before?

His old face darkened.

He wanted to attack but didn't dare; this was a vicious person who even put Karina down. He wanted to give in, but he'd lose a lot of face; such a large commotion had long alerted the other clansmen on Metallic Silver Island.

But Gu Nan didn't bother looking at him again. Dvalin's final decision didn't matter—in fact, there were only two paths he could take.

Cooperate to live, or cooperate by dying.

Prince Charlie's squad was getting deeper and deeper, and the great commotion in the center of Metallic Silver Island astonished them while simultaneously giving them a sense of anticipation.

"Brother, the sword in the stone must be just ahead. Let's speed up!" Little Alice also secretly followed the group, and at this time shouted from next to Charlie.

Alice's forehead was covered with sweat, and her long golden hair was almost plastered to her head, but her expression was still exuberant.

"There's no harm in being careful," Prince Charlie hurriedly pulled her back and exhorted.

"I know that… Hey, is that the sword in the stone?" Alice's pleasantly surprised voice exclaimed.

Charlie also hurriedly looked up to see a broken sword stuck in the ground in front of him.

"We found it this easily?" Charlie seemed a little incredulous, feeling that his own adventure this time shouldn't be so simple.

But the sword in the stone was right in front of him, and he had no reason to hesitate, rushing forward as soon as possible and pulling the broken sword out.

And then… nothing happened. The broken sword was still a broken sword.

The next moment, Charlie felt two shadows emerge from the ground, gripping him and pulling him forward.

Not long after, a huge body appeared in front of him, while the broken sword plunged into it.

"This is… dragon?!" After calming down, Charlie realized that the broken sword had stabbed a huge silver dragon covered with metal scales.

But these scales of incredible hardness appeared to be paper in front of the broken sword.

"What is that human holding in his hand? Dvalin shouted madly, because he sensed the special aura coming from the broken sword.

The broken sword was nothing special when it was first pulled out, but the moment it entered Evan's body, the resentful spirits of countless dragons seemed to surge out at the same time.

Such weapons had a special name in the World of Gods.

"Dragon Slayer." Sylvia frowned slightly. She didn't expect Gu Nan to be looking for this.

"Dragon's Bane," Gu Nan uttered the players' loving name for the sword.

Prince Charlie pulled out the broken sword in a daze but discovered that it was no longer appropriate to call it a "broken sword."

After absorbing a dragon's blood, the rust had faded away completely, revealing its original appearance.

It was a dagger that glowed golden all over!

"As expected of the sword in the stone…" Prince Charlie murmured.

But immediately afterwards, he felt a flash of shadows in front of him, and the dagger in his hand was snatched away.

Prince Charlie instantly looked up angrily, only to see the "apostle" he saw the other day holding the dagger and examining it carefully.

Each "Dragon Slayer" had a hidden "Dragon Grudge" attribute, which had a strong taunting effect on the dragon race.

Now that this dagger appeared on Metallic Silver Island, it would lure countless furious dragons over in the blink of an eye, and this was exactly Gu Nan's goal.

He needed the heads of twenty metal dragons, but dragons were all cowards who valued their lives, and they also ran away fast. Rather than spending the effort to chase the dragons down one by one, it was better to find someone to pull out this dagger.

Now that Gu Nan got the sword, Classmate Charlie wasn't so happy anymore.

But not only did this charismatic prince not have any intention of sternly criticizing Gu Nan, he actually revealed a respectful expression.

"This humble one would like to offer the divine sword in respect to your god. May I know the name of that one…"

He figured that the two before him must be the apostles of a certain god, just slightly greedier than average. After all, not all apostles were good people.

But as long as he knew the identity of that god, he could always get back what he lost in today's encounter. Perhaps the god might even give more compensation.

Gods always needed mortals to complete certain tasks for them, so a good reputation was quite important.

However, Gu Nan just cast him a glance, then took the golden dagger and plunged it into his stomach.

"Don't think too much." He patted Prince Charlie's shoulder.

"Brother!"

"Your Highness Charlie!"

Cries of alarm came from behind. A golden light flashed across the scene, and corpses littered the ground.

"This dagger is the real thing." Gu Nan shook off the blood on the dagger and nodded.

"Why?" Sylvia had come up behind him.

"It's sharp when cutting dragons, not when cutting humans."

The corner of Sylvia's mouth twitched slightly. She gave Gu Nan a meaningful look. "If you do this, I'm afraid your reputation here will be all ruined, and no one will dare to work for you in the future."

To think that a god would slaughter the adventurers working for him. Once this matter spreads…

"It's all right." Gu Nan smiled at her.

Sylvia, however, was serious, "Karina already knows you were here. Don't think that no one will know if you simply kill everyone!"

Gu Nan glanced at her, then raised the dagger in his hand high above his head and stared at the metal dragons on the horizon that had gradually gathered, lured here by Dragon Slayer.

"In the name of Her Highness Sylvia, die, Dvalin the blasphemer!"

A sudden shout echoed throughout Metallic Silver Island.

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When Gu Nan's group of three saw Zi Luo Elder and Rolensia again, they were already in a frontline plane.

It was a great coincidence that their destination was, once again, Heavenly Province World—of course, it might not actually be a coincidence, and Daoist Lingyang expressed his responsibility for this coincidence.

After they greeted each other, Zi Luo Elder suddenly raised his head.

"Mad Fist is here, it seems that this old man's earlier show wasn't in vain." The old man had a smile on his face, seemingly happy with the latest arrival.

Mad Fist referred to the Star Ruler of Martial Sect Realm.

Martial Sect Realm was an old, well-known astral world, and its Star Ruler was named "Mad Fist." It was said that this was his nickname in his early years. After he became a Star Ruler, he simply abandoned his real name and used Mad Fist as his name.

Martial Sect Realm was a very special astral world. Although it was only a Realm Level plane, its Star Ruler Mad Fist's combat power even surpassed that of many Star Rulers of Heaven Level planes.

Unfortunately, Mad Fist was too inattentive to the construction of his astral world, so that his astral world itself was dragging him down.

At the same time, Mad Fist was also one of the core members of the Heaven-God Alliance. He didn't follow them over earlier, but now he most likely changed his mind.

"What did you say, old man? Didn't we agree to gather at this time? What, did you guys do something again?" After Mad Fist heard Zi Luo Elder's words, he actually looked surprised.

Gu Nan and Rolensia, who were meeting Mad Fist for the first time, couldn't help being slightly taken aback at his appearance.

Could this person be a true martial arts fanatic, so much so that he didn't even pay attention to the major events that transpired over the past two days?

"Alright, you can stop pretending." Xue Ren, who was familiar with him, came up and told Gu Nan and Rolensia, "This guy likes to pretend to be a martial arts fanatic, but his head is stuffed to the brim with schemes."

Mad Fist showed a coy smile. "Only those who wholeheartedly want to win are called martial arts fanatics. For the sake of victory, what's wrong with pretending to be a martial arts fanatic?"

"Makes sense." Gu Nan nodded at him.

"Right? Right?" Mad Fist seemed happy that someone else agreed with his view.

Rolensia remained silent, while Zi Luo Elder added, "Let's set off. Let's leave early and return early."

He looked at Gu Nan and the other two. "After this old man's earlier strike, not many people will dare to openly attack your astral worlds now, but there will still be some small movement."

Now that the Heaven-God Alliance walked into the limelight and even injured Song Fei, they immediately scared the Star Rulers who wanted to beat a drowning dog into setting aside their petty schemes for now.

No one knew whether the Heaven-God Alliance might make a comeback after some time.

If there really was such a day, then today's pleasure may well become tomorrow's bane.

However, as Zi Luo Elder said, although fewer people dared to openly jump out, there would still be people making small moves in secret.

……

Qinghe Realm.

As the largest trade-oriented astral world in the Myriad Heavens, Qinghe Realm, under the leadership of its ruler Zhong Qinghe, had always developed faster than astral worlds of the same level.

After all, if done properly, the potential of commerce was far greater than that of agricultural civilizations, and trade was the best and only way to circulate resources.

On this day, Zhong Qinghe was finishing up one of the Commerce Association's internal meetings when he was called by a vice president.

"My Lord, I made an appointment with your secretary last week. There are some matters I want to discuss with you," the vice president said respectfully.

"Old Zhou, why are you still being so polite with me? Take a seat." Zhong Qinghe casually greeted the other party and sat down, acting like they were very close.

Old Zhou showed a grateful look. "Lord, do you still remember that Lu Xinhuan took the Eldest Miss to the World of Gods, and the two of them ended up disappearing together?"

Zhong Qinghe nodded. "Xinhuan has most likely been killed already, what a pity… Little Die's life soul is still there, indicating that her life is safe, but her whereabouts are unknown."

"We found Eldest Miss," Old Zhou said at once.

Zhong Qinghe raised his head, the gaze he leveled at Old Zhou finally showing some surprise.

Old Zhou cleared his throat and reported, "Our forces in the Capital of Blood have been uprooted. But some of the traces left behind point to… Gu Nan."

"Gu Nan? Now that his astral world has been revealed to the world, you found Little Die inside?" Zhong Qinghe's expression remained unchanged.

"Your Excellency is wise," Old Zhou flattered Zhong Qinghe.

Zhong Qinghe had a calm smile on his face and said as if casually, "Then you guys can go bring her back."

Old Zhou stared blankly, then hurriedly said yes and left, but he failed to notice the strange smile on Zhong Qinghe's face as he left.

……

Gu Nan and the others passed through the dimensional wall and entered the World of Gods very smoothly. They barely ran into any obstacles.

In reality, no one would try to stop them. Wasn't it a little too stupid to try stopping a Unified Dao bigshot from returning to the World of Gods?

On the contrary, the moment Rolensia returned to the World of Gods, the original twelve greater gods sensed something at the same time, and a black-haired young girl in a long dress descended in front of them.

"Welcome back, Rolensia." The black-haired maiden seemed to want to give Rolensia a hug, only to be decisively ignored by the latter.

Xue Ren glanced at her and came over to Gu Nan's side. "Who is this one?"historical

"The incarnation of night, the Goddess of Darkness, Daisy," Gu Nan acted as the commentator and answered with little hesitation.

He knew many people suspected that he was from the World of Gods, and he had no intention of hiding this.

Let them guess. No one will guess the truth anyway.

The Goddess of Darkness Daisy, a top-tier god who ranked towards the front even among the twelve greater gods, personally came to welcome Rolensia's return today.

In fact, Rolensia's ascension was definitely a pleasant surprise for the Dark Faction.

Originally, seven of the twelve greater gods already belonged to their faction, and the Light Faction relied entirely on the might of the Ruler of Light and Justice to not fall into a disadvantage in wars.

Now that the Dark Faction had one more person, the situation in the World of Gods was about to change again.

Daisy and Rolensia's conversation didn't last long. Certain deeper-level matters wouldn't be exchanged during an occasion like this.

After separating from Daisy, Rolensia brought Gu Nan and the others back to her Divine Kingdom.

Compared to the Myriad Heavens Universe, where danger lurked everywhere, staying inside an allied greater god's Divine Kingdom was undoubtedly safe beyond measure.

"You're leaving?" Rolensia looked at Gu Nan with slight surprise. "Your Thirteen Heavens are able to influence some people on this side. It's dangerous for you to head out now."

Gu Nan, however, just revealed a small smile. "I know, but I really do have some matters to attend to."

Faced with Gu Nan's insistence, Rolensia finally nodded. "Sylvia said she wants to visit you sometime."

"I'll be back soon." Gu Nan thought for a moment and added, "As for Sylvia, you can tell her to wait for me in the Dragon Realm."

"Okay."

……

At the same time that his true body arrived in the World of Gods, Gu Nan's saint clone, who was hiding in a small plane, slowly opened his eyes.

"It's time to start the plan for the player army."

"But before that," Gu Nan's gaze fell back to his own astral world, "there are still some small bugs to deal with."

There, Zhong Die was staring at the two men in black that appeared before her with a bewildered expression.

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It was one of Gu Nan's habits to casually make stuff up. In fact, all experienced players had this habit.

Because there were so many hidden settings and Easter eggs in the game that the developers refused to reveal them all, players could only explore and discover them little by little.

And telling NPCs something beyond their understanding could very well trigger a special mechanism, leading to unexpected gains.

Of course, this was merely an offhanded attempt to discover some prize, so it didn't matter if nothing ultimately came of it.

Gu Nan ignored the pensive Sylvia and stepped into the unsealed world.

In reality, the world below the valley of Metallic Silver Island didn't have much going on, and it was even pitifully small for a world, only as big as a room.

Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for such a small world to exist. Not even pocket dimensions were this small.

But the truth was already in front of them—a clear crystal orb was before Gu Nan, shimmering with light.

If it wasn't floating in the air, it wouldn't appear to be anything special at all, but Sylvia realized the cause behind this strange phenomenon at a glance after she came down.

"The world… is in there?" She pointed at the orb incredulously, where an entire world could be seen inside.

"That's right. This is the crystallization of a Divine Kingdom's consciousness." Gu Nan nodded earnestly, then… reached out and grabbed the orb, causing the light from the ground to dim instantly.

"Are you crazy?!" Sylvia was about to freak out. Gu Nan actually snatched such a precious item away, just like that? Anyone would have to carefully study it first, right?!

Gu Nan ignored her after taking the orb and began to reach out to his Divine Kingdom, trying to stuff it inside.

He didn't know what this orb was, but he knew exactly what it did.

In the game, the scientific name of this item was "Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb," which could be used to swallow and store a Divine Kingdom.

The biggest role of the Divine Kingdom Treasure Orb was actually for players to capture, cultivate, and slaughter hostile Divine Kingdoms indefinitely. Gu Nan's current plan to store his own Divine Kingdom in it wasn't a very conventional usage of this item.

Normally, nobody would possibly want to do this, because after the Divine Kingdom was placed into the orb, it would no longer provide the owner with any astral world buffs, which was equivalent to breaking both the player's arms.

What's more, Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom was located in the Myriad Heavens Universe. Barely managing to communicate with it wasn't a problem, but whether it could be placed in the orb was an entirely different matter.

Under Sylvia's watchful eye, fine beads of sweat gradually coated Gu Nan's forehead, but he finally sighed helplessly.

He managed to establish a connection with his Divine Kingdom several times after great difficulty, but the connection was instantly severed whenever he tried to stuff the Divine Kingdom into the orb.

'Looks like it won't work. I can only try again after I return to the Myriad Heavens.' Gu Nan shook his head. In the end, he could only put the orb away.

Fortunately, this was within his expectations, so he wasn't very disappointed. Anyhow, he only came here to try it out. His operation in the World of Gods had to wait until the "player army" seedlings were sent over first.

……

The Myriad Heavens Universe.

"My Lord, the space-time crystals are ready," Old Zhou drove everyone out, then spoke to the air with trepidation.

In front of him was a large box of space-time crystals. Qinghe Realm really did handle matters efficiently.

"Not bad." The saint clone emerged and nodded in satisfaction.

Old Zhou saw Gu Nan put away the space-time crystals one by one and tried to muster up the courage to say, "Your Excellency, Miss Zhong Die is after all the daughter of my realm's ruler. If you are interested in accepting her as a subordinate, why don't you—"

"I'll find you again the next time I need you." Gu Nan finished counting the crystals—enough to satisfy his request—and patted Old Zhou's shoulder.

After saying this, the saint clone disappeared instantly. As for Zhong Die's matter, that wasn't on his mind at all.

Whether Zhong Qinghe wanted to leave her alone or find someone to take her away, Gu Nan didn't really care.

The true player army was bound to consist of apostles under his absolute control, and Zhong Die wasn't yet qualified to enter those ranks—if not for the fact that he was no longer hiding his Divine Kingdom, she wouldn't even be qualified to enter his Divine Kingdom.

……

Within the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan slowly opened his eyes, a hint of satisfaction flashing through his eyes.

The space-time crystals were ready. Now he just had to wait for that batch of seedlings to be shipped over so that he could set those people on player routes, one after another.

Sylvia was currently sitting across from Gu Nan, fixing him with a furious glare.

"Where is that orb?" Sylvia asked, glaring at Gu Nan.

"Something the matter?" Gu Nan raised a brow.

Sylvia said hatefully, "I asked my brother. It's impossible for a Divine Kingdom to produce a consciousness, and it's even more impossible for greater gods than normal gods!"

At a greater god's level, there was actually the intention of breaking away from their Divine Kingdom and consolidating their power in themselves.

In the words of the Myriad Heavens, the cultivator merges with a great Dao, and from then on, they themself will be the incarnation of that law, so their astral world will not be as important as before.

So Gu Nan's previous set of statements was also bullying Sylvia for her lack of understanding of greater gods, while it was impossible for her older brother Austin to be fooled by such lies.

"Oh. Anything else the matter?" Although Gu Nan's lie was exposed to his face, he didn't have much of a response.

So the scene descended into silence. Sylvia didn't speak, and Gu Nan also didn't continue the conversation.

"In fact, Sylvia came over this time to request your help on a matter," a voice eventually rang out from beside the two as Daoist Lingyang's figure slowly appeared.

This Daoist was all smiles and looked very good-natured.

Daoist Lingyang was considered half a resident of the World of Gods and was quite familiar with the situation over here. He happened to be on this side when Gu Nan joined the Heaven-God Alliance earlier.

His words weren't out of Gu Nan's expectations. While Sylvia was certainly a relatively idle god, it wasn't like she didn't have anything to do.

Of course she didn't visit Gu Nan just to follow him around Dragon Realm for a stroll. She must have some other intention as well.

It's just that there were so many unexpected events along the way that she didn't even have time to speak up. historical

"It's a duel regarding laws," after Daoist Lingyang laid the foundation, Sylvia finally felt it less awkward to speak up.

"I will represent 'Shadow' in the battle, but… my opponent might be very strong, so I would like you to take my place."

A trace of realization flashed through Gu Nan's eyes, and he seemed to understand what Sylvia was about to be involved in. That event was also a famous event in the game.

"Since we're all part of the same organization, helping out is certainly no problem," Gu Nan agreed readily. "As for the reward…"

He turned to Daoist Lingyang. "I have a batch of people I want to transport to this side. Can your people help out?"

Daoist Lingyang accepted with a smile, "Of course, that's a trivial matter."

"Hey! You still want another reward?" Sylvia, who had been screwed over several times already by Gu Nan, was immediately dissatisfied. "I've already taken the blame for you."

Gu Nan glanced at her, then thought about it and replied, "That blame is something I pinned on your head, so it doesn't count as you helping me."

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Chapter 415: Shadow Cult Event

It really wasn't too much of a hassle for Daoist Lingyang's Clear Profundity Realm to send a group of people to the World of Gods, especially if Gu Nan already prepared the space-time crystals in advance.

But when players complete missions, they always try to take as much advantage as possible without any regard to losing face.

Sylvia left unhappily, and after Daoist Lingyang asked about the people Gu Nan wanted to send and agreed on a meeting place, his figure also quickly disappeared.

Gu Nan looked at his departing back and pondered.

The purpose behind the existence of an organization like the Heaven-God Alliance, which straddled two worlds, was multifaceted by its very nature.

For people like Xue Ren and Rolensia, what they wanted was an unhindered path to Unified Dao in the other world, but for those like Daoist Lingyang and Sylvia, it was still a little too early to consider that.

The world was full of Star Rulers and gods who indulged in carnal pleasures—if not, how could there be so many illegitimate children of gods?

Daoist Lingyang didn't look like someone addicted to pleasure, but he frequently visited the World of Gods, as if he was managing something on this side.

Then Gu Nan shook his head again. Daoist Lingyang's plans were none of his business.

The more important matter right now was still the event that Sylvia came to him about.

The events in the Evil God game were set up in a very interesting way, and the vast majority of them had rogue-like characteristics. Every new cycle in the game, the same events would happen at slightly different times, and even the details would be a little different.

Only the main content of the event would be the same, which made events more unpredictable and gave the players more entertainment—of course, now Gu Nan would prefer not to have such entertainment.

Gu Nan knew what Sylvia needed his help with even before she explained.

The Shadow Cult.

In the World of Gods, there was a cult that existed throughout many planes and even had believers in all the main planes. This was the Shadow Cult.

The Shadow Cult was a relatively special cult because it didn't belong to a particular god, but was a sect formed by an alliance of three gods.

The Goddess of Shadows Sylvia, the God of Thieves Sirius, and the Sage of Deadwood Aiden—these three were the founders of Shadow Cult, which was mainly made up of their followers.

The three joined forces to protect this sect and also obtained faith from the sect, which was one of the better methods for weak gods to harvest faith.

After all, it was unlikely that any single one of the three would be able to develop the cult to this extent on their own.

But at some point in time, Shadow Cult will face the attack of another sect, or rather, face the challenge of a powerful god.

...

When Sylvia dropped by Gu Nan's residence once again, she also brought information on a certain god.

"Shadow Sword Saint Chamberlain, he's our opponent this time," Sylvia pointed to the information on the paper and said with a slightly grave expression. historical

Gu Nan wasn't surprised. No matter how Shadow Cult's crisis changed, the final boss was always the same Chamberlain.

The conflict between the two sides was also very simple: it was a fight over faith.

The "Shadow" in Shadow Cult was the common point of the three gods' laws, but unfortunately, the origin law of the Shadow Sword Saint was also "Shadow."

In such a situation, a portion of Chamberlain's followers was naturally divided up by Shadow Cult, so of course the Sword Saint was unwilling.

This wasn't because Sylvia and her two allies wanted to take advantage of him. Rather, Chamberlain didn't even exist back when they founded Shadow Cult.

The Shadow Sword Saint was a god who rose abruptly only in the last 10,000 years, and in just a short few thousand years, his strength had already progressed to Tier 8. He could be described as a natural-born genius.

It was only after he gained a grasp of his own power that he began to take on Shadow Cult, bullying this joint sect of one Tier 6 and two Tier 7 gods.

Of course, he didn't want to completely break up Shadow Cult.

This was an alliance of three old, well-known gods. Although none of them were too strong, they had many friends, so they didn't fear a full-scale war against anyone.

Chamberlain's goal this time was merely to force Shadow Cult to change its name, so that it wouldn't take away the believers who should've gone to him.

He proposed a fair fight between himself and the three gods behind Shadow Cult, and the winner would win the right to use "Shadow" in their name.

"Chamberlain, huh... He knows which lines shouldn't be crossed," Gu Nan commented. If Mr. Sword Saint dared to brute force this matter, then there were plenty of people willing to stand up for Sylvia to suck up to the Greater God of Light.

On the contrary, if he kept the situation purely to a dispute of faith, then Sylvia and co's friends wouldn't have a good reason to intervene.

Of course they could find outside help if it concerned their sect's continued existence, but if they needed external help even for something like a fight over faith, then the loss of believers would be very serious.

"But if the sect were to change its name, the loss of faith would be just as serious," Sylvia sounded a bit distressed. This was their current predicament.

Of course changing the name of a sect that had been operating for tens of thousands of years would cause a loss of believers, and getting help from an outsider would actually result in a similar outcome.

"Then how can I help you?" Gu Nan thought for a moment and asked.

"Fight in my place. Anyhow, we both use the law of shadows, and Chamberlain has never seen me before, so there's no reason he'd recognize me."

"I may not fight with just shadows. What if he recognizes that?"

"Then I'll tell him you're a new member of Shadow Cult!" Sylvia had obviously thought of a way out long ago, "Even if you genuinely want to join, I'm sure the other two won't refuse."

Gu Nan couldn't help smiling. Who said Sylvia was simpleminded? She wasn't slow at all when it involved her own benefits.

To join Shadow Cult, either in name or in substance—this was also the solution in the game.

As long as the player's law was related to shadows and the player was sufficiently acquainted with one of the three founding gods, it was possible to trigger the "Shadow Cult" event.

The player can intervene by temporarily joining Shadow Cult as a god, and it's up to the player to choose whether to stay or quit after the event ends.

"I got it." Gu Nan nodded. "When and where is the sword fight?"

The phrase "sword fight" made the corner of Sylvia's mouth twitch slightly, but she eventually told Gu Nan the information, then quickly excused herself and went back to communicate with the other two gods.

After, adding a new god to the sect wasn't a trivial matter.

Of course, Gu Nan wouldn't be very interested in faith. The reason he wanted to participate in this matter was actually because of Chamberlain himself.

This just happened to match what Gu Nan planned to do next. If he wanted to create a player army, then cracking down on Chamberlain was inevitable.

Because only when the player participates in the Shadow Cult Event and successfully defeats Chamberlain will the Shadow Sword Saint learn from this painful experience and honor his promise to give up the name "Shadow," changing his name to "Phantom Sword Saint."

And only then will the hidden class "Phantom Sword Saint" unlock for players.

So Gu Nan paused for a moment and said, "I'll go with you."

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Chapter 416: Another Shadow User

The Phantom Sword Saint was a very powerful class, but it was also a very hard class to acquire.

First of all, this was a class that players could change to even after completing the First Round—the game's equivalent of gods, who were at least Tier 6—so it was undoubtedly a powerful class.

In other words, this class had a very high upper limit and could be used until the Second Round, after which the player would have to return to the Evil God route.

The second reason was because the player participated in the Shadow Cult Event, which was the same as directly dropping Chamberlain's favorability into the negatives, so one could only imagine the difficulty of trying to learn from him again after that.

And because Chamberlain was the founder of this route, killing him wouldn't give the player any sort of inheritance.

There were some crazy completionist players who, in order to experience the power of the "Phantom Sword Saint" route, even used self-destructive methods.

After they defeated Chamberlain, they decisively chose to destroy their own Evil God physique, then respawned in the Evil God Temple, eventually changing their entire appearance to obtain the Phantom Sword Saint class.

Gu Nan himself also experienced this event, but he wasn't deranged to the point of destroying his own avatar. After several failed attempts to change his class to Phantom Sword Saint, he decisively gave up.

However, it was much easier now. He just needed to pull in some people from the Myriad Heavens and have them select that class.

But what Gu Nan didn't expect was for certain actions of his to cause the event to somewhat exceed his expectations.

...

Two figures slowly appeared in Sylvia's Shadows Divine Kingdom.

One was a very thin and somewhat hunchbacked old man. This was Aiden, the Sage of Deadwood.

Legend has it that Aiden was originally from the Shepherd Tree clan and was the only god among the Shepherd Tree people, only he became a god because he awakened to extremely special laws after being abandoned by his clan.

The other newcomer was tall and handsome. His every move seemed gentle and polite, like a model gentleman.

It was very hard to imagine that this would be the legendary God of Thieves, the complete opposite of the "shifty-eyed thief" image that people often thought of.

"The one that seems the most unlikely to commit crimes is often the real criminal." Gu Nan knew this very well, because the three great gods of crime all had the same image discrepancy.

After the two arrived, they didn't rush to greet Sylvia, instead studying Gu Nan first.

"Welcome, my friends." Sylvia led the two into the castle and took the lead in introducing Gu Nan beside her, "This is Mr. Gu Nan, from the... Myriad Heavens Universe."

"So that's it." A smile of understanding appeared on the Deadwood Sage's withered face. "It is a bit strange that nobody has ever heard of another wielder of shadows."

When Sylvia asked the two to come, she naturally told them the reason for the meeting.

Aiden was explaining the two's earlier actions, and Gu Nan nodded slightly without saying anything else.

The God of Thieves Sirius said, "Your Excellency Gu Nan, will you replace Sylvia in the battle? Since Your Excellency doesn't mind joining Shadow Cult, why don't you participate in this matter as yourself?"

Chamberlain's reputation was so great that both Aiden and Sirius were actually somewhat uncertain about their chances of victory.

After all, none of the three had laws suited for direct combat, while their opponent was the exact opposite—the epithet of Sword Saint was originally earned by piling up mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

If Gu Nan participated using his own identity, it would be the same as having four people simultaneously fight their opponent, so the chances of winning would be a bit greater that way.

"Actually... it won't make much of a difference," Gu Nan considered for a moment and replied.

Sylvia's face instantly darkened again. After Gu Nan noticed this, he turned his head again and very seriously explained, "Don't misunderstand—I wasn't targeting you specifically."

"..."

"Ahem." The Deadwood Sage coughed lightly to ease the awkwardness a little. "Mr. Gu Nan is very confident, so... will you let us see for ourselves?"

Be it substituting for Sylvia or simply joining Shadow Cult, testing Gu Nan's strength was inevitable. This was the main purpose behind the two's visit.

If Gu Nan were to join Shadow Cult, his strength would determine the internal distribution of benefits.

"Sure thing." Gu Nan smiled, the shadows under his feet already starting to converge. "Which one of you will go first?"

The God of Thieves and the Deadwood Sage exchanged a glance. Since it was just a test, it was actually enough for one person to go, so who went first was completely irrelevant.

Thus, the Deadwood Sage gently waved his hand, and among the crevices of Sylvia's castle, withered branches gradually sprang up and swiftly crawled towards Gu Nan.

These withered branches were scorched black, as if they had been burned by fire, yet they exuded ample vitality, looking incomparably eerie.

In the blink of an eye, the withered branches had curled and twisted themselves into a huge deadwood giant, which swung a fist down at Gu Nan.

Normally, Gu Nan would simply let the giant smash into him without even blinking, but this time, he used the power of shadows.

The shadows beneath Gu Nan's feet suddenly rose, turning into countless tentacles that rushed towards the deadwood giant. They drilled into the giant's body, weaving between gaps in the withered wood.

The next moment, the entire deadwood giant was instantly dismantled, a shadow attached to each withered branch.

The smile on Aiden's face stiffened. He continuously activated his divine power but couldn't influence the withered branches in the slightest. He knew what this meant.

Utter defeat.

...

Chamberlain was a very cautious person.

Despite having extreme confidence in his ability to suppress his opponents, even in a one-on-three fight, he didn't stop collecting information about the three enemies for even a second.

There was a lot of news about the God of Thieves and the Sage of Deadwood, but contrary to expectations, there was very little news about Sylvia. This mysterious goddess's trail was rarely discovered by people.

But this time, news about Sylvia spread everywhere. historical

Many people already identified Sylvia as the perpetrator of the tragedy on Dragon Realm's Metallic Silver Island. After all, she did appear there once.

But Chamberlain didn't believe that—because he was also a well-traveled person and had many friends, the majority of whom were battle maniacs like himself, such as Karina.

"You're saying there's an unfamiliar god by Sylvia's side?" Chamberlain asked contemplatively as he stroked the stubble beard on his chin.

"It's an unfamiliar god with a very hard fist!" Karina emphasized this while rubbing the back of her head, which was still a little sore. "And I can tell that his fundamental law is shadows."

That was what perplexed the two of them the most—that there was another god whose law was shadows whom they've never even heard of.

"Sylvia appeared together with a strange god at a time like this. It looks like there will be more twists and turns if I want to claim the name of 'Shadow'." Chamberlain couldn't help but sigh.

"You mean that person will help during the fight?" Karina revealed a look of surprise. "Great!"

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The Myriad Heavens Universe.

Inside a frontline plane, several youths were slowly walking onto a starship in a neat formation, and standing in front of them was none other than Lan Si.

"Lord Lan Si, all arrangements have been finished on that side. A guide will take you to Lord Gu Nan as soon as you reach the World of Gods," a Daoist informed Lan Si with a smile from next to her.

"Which plane is he in?" Lan Si nodded.

"The Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom."

……

On the starship, Lan Si gazed at the scenery slowly sailing by on both sides, lost in thought for a while.

Gu Nan planned to transport a group of seedlings to the World of Gods, and as one of the Divine Kingdom's administrators, Lan Si was bound to be the one leading that group.

Because these seedlings either grew up in the Divine Kingdom or were gathered from outside, Lan Si and Yan Xiaoxiao initially managed them.

So only the two of them had enough prestige among these people to lead them.

There were a total of nine seedlings heading to the World of Gods this time. Every single one was the elite of the elite, and every single one walked to their positions by stepping over piles of corpses and bones. How could ordinary people control them?

And Yan Xiaoxiao was connected to the Divine Kingdom's origin. As she continued her cultivation all these years… In Lan Si's words, Yan Xiaoxiao seemed more and more inhuman.

In short, the only one who could run out to lead the team was her. But initially, Lan Si didn't know that she was actually heading to the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom.

That… was her hometown, the place where she grew up.

Many years had passed, and she'd long since stopped being the ignorant young girl from back then. She was afraid the number of people who died at her hands even exceeded the number of people she'd seen in the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom.

"Lord Lan Si." Liang Ruxin appeared beside Lan Si. When he saw her slightly melancholy profile, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Lan Si turned back, all traces of emotion vanishing from her face. She just said calmly, "Of the nine of you, you have the greatest potential, and your origins are also clear. When you reach His Lordship's side, you must perform well."

After saying this, she gave Liang Ruxin another meaningful look. "I believe you are a smart person."historical

"Of course." Liang Ruxin revealed a faint smile. "These days, the sentence I hear the most from people around me is that that one's existence is supreme and cannot be opposed."

Lan Si nodded and was about to respond when Liang Ruxin continued, "But I feel that there will always be existences as supreme as that one in this world."

As he said this, Liang Ruxin watched Lan Si's expression closely. This might be his only chance to learn more about that one before meeting him.

To Liang Ruxin's surprise, Lan Si didn't show any anger or annoyance from the offense. She only had a mocking smile.

"If you are an ambitious person, then following that Lord is the best choice for you."

……

When Lan Si led her group to meet Gu Nan, he was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, with no image to speak of whatsoever. In his hands were cards full of decorative patterns.

And sitting across from him was Sylvia. At this time, she seemed to be scratching her cheeks out of frustration. She also held some patterned cards in her hands, but they were few in number.

What they played was called Black Cards, a card game that was quite popular within the World of Gods. It was used to simulate Divine Kingdom Wars.

This card game was also quite popular among players and later even had a dedicated game server just for that, independent from the Evil God game.

Not many gods liked to play cards, but Sylvia, a god with a lot of free time, just happened to be one of them and just happened to run into a bored Gu Nan, so they started a card fight on the spot. In any case, there was still a lot of time until the duel.

The result, of course, was that the Shadow Goddess lost ten out of ten rounds and didn't even manage to force out any of Gu Nan's trump cards.

Knowing that she was about to lose this round as well, Sylvia jumped at the chance to leave after seeing Lan Si bring people over. Regardless of whether she recognized them or not, she flung her cards away and got up. "You have guests, so I'll leave now!"

After saying this, her figure disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye. Not even Gu Nan could catch her this time—after all, she was still the Goddess of Shadows, so she was quite skilled at running away.

Gu Nan's gaze revealed a trace of mockery. He picked up the cards she dropped and placed them outside the field, then restored the field she just messed up to its original state… so that she can get ready for her eleventh consecutive loss on her next visit.

Then Gu Nan thought about it and took a passing glance at Sylvia's cards.

Liang Ruixin trailed behind Lan Si, his eyes lowered.

He never judged people by their appearances and had also seen many ambitious and formidable characters who acted unrestrained, so he certainly wouldn't underestimate the one in front of him just because of some trifling matters.

"My Lord, it's these nine," Lan Si said meticulously, as if she didn't see anything just now.

"Good." Gu Nan also put the cards down and nodded. "It's not easy to come back here. Have you seen Rolensia yet?"

Lan Si was slightly taken aback. She thought Gu Nan would skirt around this topic, but who would've thought…

But then she shook her head with a bit of helplessness in her eyes. "That one… probably doesn't remember me anymore, or rather, she probably never even knew me."

Rolensia was already a powerful Tier 10 god when Lan Si first left, and how many apostles were there in her Divine Kingdom?

Not to mention the fact that Lan Si and her sibling weren't even considered apostles back then. At most, they could only be considered Rolensia's fanatics, so of course the god wouldn't remember them by name.

They originally ran to the Myriad Heavens for the sake of the most basic water attribute Godhead. It may have seemed very powerful at that time, but in reality, in Rolensia's eyes, it wasn't something worth her time at all.

If she really wanted a Godhead, she could simply kill an enemy god.

So back then, the one who assigned this mission to Lan Si and her brother was Rolensia's apostle, who might even be weaker than the current Lan Si.

"Still, you should go back for a stroll. Maybe you can trigger some event… Mm, maybe you can meet some acquaintances." Gu Nan beamed at her.

Lan Si's heart shook slightly, but she still nodded. "Yes."

Only after Lan Si left did Gu Nan look at the nine people who she brought over. "You've all been sent on missions to smaller planes before, right? What I need you to do in the future is the same thing."

After a pause, Gu Nan added, "Work for me and complete the missions I give you, and as reward, you will receive… power."

After a moment of silence from the nine, one of them finally spoke up. He looked like a young teen. "Do we have the right to refuse?"

"Of course," Gu Nan answered graciously. "But that would upset me, and when I'm upset, I will kill the person who upset me."

The teenager fell silent, and a young girl next to him couldn't help sneering, "Isn't that the same as not having the right to refuse?"

"Not at all." Gu Nan corrected earnestly, "You have the right to refuse, and I also have the power to kill you. I respect your right, and you also have to respect my power. That's always the truth of this world."

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Of the nine people who were brought over, this pair of teen girl and boy were the youngest and also the most talented.

Young people, after all, had the characteristics of youths. They weren't calm and calculating like the others, who never even spoke up.

To reward their courage, Gu Nan was willing to teach them some life lessons.

The teenager thought for a long time and finally looked at Gu Nan. "If I can beat you one day, will you let me go?"

"If you can beat me, then it's not whether I let you go or not, but the other way around."

The youth nodded thoughtfully, then flung his sleeves fiercely without any of the earlier inexperienced air and declared like a bandit, "I, your father, will do this thing!"

"What's your name and what did you do originally?" Gu Nan looked at him.

"An Tiansheng, bandit."

……

An Tiansheng the bandit was fourteen years old, a fact that Gu Nan just learned.

But he didn't mind using child labor. As long as they could finish the tasks he assigned, he even dared to use four year olds.

At this time, the nine people were no longer in front of Gu Nan. Rather, they all remained inside a room, swiftly browsing through a pile of documents.historical

These were documents Gu Nan recently sorted out and contained information on player routes.

Routes were very important things. Instead of having Gu Nan get to know them one by one, it would be better to let them make their own choices first.

For the sake of secrecy, from the time they entered the room, they weren't allowed to leave until they selected the route they wanted to take.

And after choosing a route, they had to explain their own specialties, as well as the reasons for picking this route. After Gu Nan looked over their choice, only then would he direct them on the path to acquiring that class.

To Gu Nan's slight surprise, the first person to come out was not An Tiansheng, but the young girl.

"I'm Xie Yun, sir," perhaps Gu Nan's earlier words had an effect, because the young Xie Yun had a significantly better attitude, and her voice sounded crisp.

"Your chosen route is?"

"Firearms Specialist."

Gu Nan couldn't help smiling as he accepted the documents from Xie Yun. "This is not a class a normal person would choose."

Firearms Specialist was a very interesting class that could project firearms using energy. It was purely suppression through modern weaponry.

However, this also meant that this route didn't have a very high upper limit. It was useful only from around Tier 3 to Tier 6.

It could barely work in Tier 7, but any higher, and the abilities from a Firearms Specialist would be essentially useless, and the player would only be able to use their Evil God physique and their original laws in fights.

And since the people Gu Nan chose didn't have the Evil God Temple, that meant the Firearms Specialist route Xie Yun chose would at most have a combat power of low Tier 7.

Unless she changed her class later on and started all over again.

Of course, this was already a completely acceptable outcome for Xie Yun if her combat power could reach Tier 7. Not everyone wanted to head straight for Unified Dao.

"Have you ever seen a gun?" Gu Nan thought about it and asked.

"Of course." Xie Yun nodded. "I once went to a technological plane with very advanced weapon development!"

Xie Yun's eyes lit up as she talked. Gu Nan could already imagine what it was like for a young girl who grew up in a metaphysical plane to witness modern weapons for the first time in her life.

For lower level fights, modern weapons were indeed practical and cool, but they wouldn't work in slightly higher levels.

For example, with the strength of Gu Nan's current body, he could tank a nuclear explosion without any problem. Be it the heat, shockwave, or radiation, it was impossible to hurt him.

"Then let's try it," Gu Nan said as such, writing down some information and handing it to Xie Yun.

……

When the day of Shadow Cult's duel with Chamberlain arrived, all nine people that Lan Si brought over had been dispatched.

They went to their respective destinations to attempt the class change quests and acquire the class they wanted.

No one picked the Phantom Sword Saint route so far, but Gu Nan wasn't in a hurry. It would be pretty good if half of the nine successfully completed the class change.

Player routes weren't that easy to walk. Even normal players had a small chance of failing, let alone these NPCs with no game experience and average strength.

"Hey, it's time to go!" Sylvia had already gotten familiar with Gu Nan, so she didn't look polite at all. "I hope you're not defeated by a single strike from Chamberlain."

"My strength is as reliable as my card skills." Gu Nan said with a smirk, "If it goes well, you will welcome your 50th consecutive defeat this afternoon."

"You have no chivalry whatsoever! You'll never be favored by a lady," Sylvia bristled and grumbled.

The gods' dueling locations were also very special. To not affect mortals—mainly to preserve their reputations—they usually picked deserted planes to fight in.

This time was no different. Sirius and Aiden were already waiting when Gu Nan arrived.

"Your Excellency Gu Nan, I received a message just now." The extraordinarily handsome God of Thieves said, "Chamberlain might have a helper as well."

Sylvia frowned. "Is the helper he found qualified to intervene in this battle of ours?"

If any random person could intervene, then Sylvia would have way too many people to choose from and wouldn't have to rely on the annoying Gu Nan.

"Sylvia!" A slightly gruff female voice came from the horizon, immediately making Sylvia go pale.

The Valkyrie holding a golden spear instantly descended, and the spear came straight at Gu Nan.

Gu Nan didn't even raise his head and casually blocked with his hand. The golden spear struck his palm but didn't even leave a mark.

"Karina, this is a fight between our Shadow Cult and Chamberlain. Are you sure you want to interfere?" Sylvia's voice was slightly cold. If Karina intervened in this matter, then they would truly become enemies.

"I'm just here for this guy!" Karina wasn't stupid either. She pointed her spear at Gu Nan. "He beat me up once. Am I not allowed to take revenge?"

Sylvia couldn't help feeling enraged. "What's the difference between picking now of all times to seek revenge and helping Chamberlain?!"

Next to them, Aiden and Sirius had wry smiles.

They weren't like Sylvia, who had a powerful older brother. Based on their past experience with Karina, this one wouldn't listen to any attempt to reason.

Sure enough, Karina's next words were, "I don't care!"

As soon as those words fell, she didn't give Sylvia the opportunity to respond before thrusting her spear towards Gu Nan.

The golden spear shone with an astonishing radiance. Clearly, Karina already strengthened it with her own laws, quite unlike the casual jab just now.

Everyone's gazes landed on Gu Nan, wanting to see how he would respond. However… Gu Nan did not respond.

The spear pierced Gu Nan's chest unhindered, punching through his back and leaving a gruesome bloody hole.

Sylvia's eyes widened, and even Karina herself didn't expect for the opponent who once knocked her out to be so weak.

But she realized something was wrong the next second.

Gu Nan, whose chest was clearly impaled, gave a strange smile, while she was actually unable to pull her spear out. It seemed to be stuck inside her opponent.

After the spear entered the enemy's body, her laws were briefly suppressed, while Gu Nan raised one hand and grabbed the spear's shaft.

"Let me teach you all a lesson today." Gu Nan's voice remained calm as usual, making Sylvia feel slightly more at ease. "The Wrestling Goddess also has a weakness."

"What weakness!?" Karina asked before anyone else. She felt that she had already achieved the limit for her level. Her divine body was close to perfect, so it would be hard to improve on it anymore.

Her divine body was indeed perfect. Even Gu Nan had a hard time finding a way to kill her, but it was only a perfect divine body.

"Your attack is too low!" Gu Nan said rudely, "If not, why would you need to find the God of Blacksmiths just to forge this divine spear?"

As Gu Nan said this, he pointed at the golden spear that pierced his body and was currently gripped in one hand.

While Karina was still staring blankly, Gu Nan had already raised his other hand and slammed it down on the spear shaft with great force.

The divine spear, which accompanied Karina for tens of thousands of years, responded by breaking in half.

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This was the scene Chamberlain saw when he arrived.

Karina was staring blankly at the broken spear in her hand while Gu Nan casually pulled out the other half of the divine spear from his chest and threw it to the ground.

"Chamberlain is here, so let's get started." Gu Nan looked like he didn't put Karina in his eyes at all.

Karina punched him in annoyance, but Gu Nan didn't even bother dodging, letting her hit his shoulder, and then… and then nothing.

Players can always find the weakness of any NPC, even if it's Karina, the hidden protagonist of the next godly world war.

After all, even the players' Evil God physiques were bound to have development directions depending on the skills players chose before their First Round.

For example, Gu Nan's focus was on speed and regeneration, so his attack and defense were just average among players.

And Karina was known as the Wrestling Goddess, but in fact, her laws should be related to defense, providing her with amazing resistance against all sorts of laws. Even Gu Nan found it hard to wound her, let alone kill her.

But on the flip side, she was nowhere near Gu Nan's level in either speed or attack power.

With the divine spear that provided most of her attack power damaged, she lost her best means of fighting the enemy.

"Karina, you should not interfere in this matter anymore," Chamberlain obviously also saw this and said with a serious expression.

After all, Karina only had an excuse to attack Gu Nan, but Gu Nan could ignore her attacks.

Of course, she could still hold him back slightly if she kept on pestering him, but then the scene would be too ugly, as if this Valkyrie was just throwing a tantrum.

Perhaps the goddess herself wouldn't care about her image, but Chamberlain didn't intend to do that.

He wasn't a sinister villain and originally only wanted to fight for the name of "Shadow" that should belong to him. He didn't want to start a blood feud with the three gods.

So Karina resentfully stepped aside, while Gu Nan and the two other gods stepped up on Shadow Cult's side—because Chamberlain abided by the rules, they decided to not attack him with four people.

"After this battle, there will only be one party using the name of 'Shadow' in this world." Chamberlain slowly unsheathed his longsword from his waist. "If this humble one loses, I will change my name to 'Phantom'."

The Shadow Sword Saint was indeed an open and honest person. He didn't use his superior strength to repeatedly challenge Shadow Cult over and over again.

He still behaved honorably, even if Sylvia had found Gu Nan—an outside helper—for this duel.

So this time, Sylvia became a little embarrassed and took the initiative to speak, "Actually—"

"You shut up." Gu Nan quickly interrupted, "The Light Faction really is indecisive. If we're gonna fight, then let's fight now."

Chamberlain and Sylvia both belonged to the Light Faction, and only they would engage in this kind of humble back-and-forth on a major matter like a fight over faith.

Just look at the Dark Faction's Sirius and Aiden—one was one of the three great gods of crime and the other was a fallen Shepherd Tree clan member. Did they have an ounce of humility right now?

Both had extremely wicked grins.

Sylvia had a lot to say but was blocked by Gu Nan's "Shut up," so she could only shoot him a vicious glare.

Chamberlain wasn't affected at all. The longsword in his hand was already heading straight for the God of Thieves.

The Shadow Sword Saint's tactical intent was very clear. He wanted to first destroy the weakest link called Sirius, then free up his hands to deal with the remaining two.

Fights where the opponents outnumbered you more or less always had two strategies—either destroy the weakest first or the strongest first.

Gu Nan proved that he wasn't a very easy target to exterminate, so Sirius became the best target.

Sirius and Aiden both reacted extremely fast. In fact, the two of them had a good relationship, having fought together many times before.

Without another word, the tall and handsome God of Thieves suddenly disappeared from the air, while the countless withered branches from the Sage of Deadwood slammed into Chamberlain's sword.

Swordsmanship in the World of Gods was very different from the sword Dao over in the Myriad Heavens.

There was no such thing as sword intent or sword heart here; there was only the ultimate speed!

Chamberlain's longsword was as fast as lightning, leaving streaks of afterimages in the air. As soon as the Deadwood Sage struck, six figures appeared around Aiden.

He created a diversion to strike his true target!

The aged Aiden glared, trying to mobilize the withered branches again, but it was too late. Thus, his entire body quickly swelled up, his skin blackening inch by inch, quickly transforming into deadwood.

This Tier 7 god already brought out his true form in just one exchange. One could see just how much pressure the Shadow Sword Saint gave him.

The six shadowy afterimages that surrounded him were none other than Chamberlain's famous sword art. All six shadows were real, and each one could inflict astonishing damage.

However, just as the six shadows swung their swords, a fist came down from the sky and hit one of them.

The six shadows froze simultaneously, then changed their sword paths in unison and came straight at the Gu Nan who just appeared.

Gu Nan didn't even look at them, allowing the six swords to pierce his body, while his fist hit the enemy as usual.

Thus, the other five shadows disappeared at the same time, leaving only the one in front of Gu Nan. It was none other than Chamberlain himself, who had blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth.

Not even a Tier 8 god could shrug off a direct hit from Gu Nan's fist. After all, not everyone was as abnormal as Karina.

"You seem to know me well?" Chamberlain didn't seem to care about his own injuries, instead staring at Gu Nan strangely.

His Transforming Shadow Sword Technique had been famous for many years, but those who truly knew its essence could be counted on one hand. As far as he knew, Gu Nan was obviously not included in that group.historical

"Every one of them is real, but there's always one that's more real, right?" Gu Nan revealed an odd smile, then exposed the secret behind this sword technique in one sentence.

These were Chamberlain's exact words, but only after he became the Phantom Sword Saint, so Gu Nan was borrowing them in advance.

On the other hand, the fact that he was able to find Chamberlain's true body actually had very little to do with his ability to see through reality or illusions—he simply took a chance and bet on luck. In any case, at least one of the six was real, but he didn't expect to hit the jackpot on the first try.

If the first one wasn't right, then he would decisively attack the next shadow. As for Aiden's life or death, that was none of his concern.

But Chamberlain didn't know this. His gaze turned slightly grave. In his eyes, Gu Nan became even more mysterious.

He didn't want to take another punch, so he decisively gave up the Transforming Shadow Sword Technique, and his body began to change into a shadow, swimming through the cracks in space.

The next instant, the tip of his sword emerged abruptly and directly pierced the heart of Aiden's tree.

The Deadwood Sage had no time to react before he was impaled by the sword, but a ruthless look appeared in his eyes, and his hands violently grabbed the longsword, refusing to let go.

The longsword instantly jerked away, slicing off both of Aiden's hands, but a muffled grunt came from the space next to Aiden as the figures of Sirius and Chamberlain appeared at the same time.

In the tall Sirius's hands, he was playing with a dagger.

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This was the strategy Aiden and Sirius came up with.

If Gu Nan didn't exist, then they would be fighting with the Deadwood Sage as the main tank, the God of Thieves as the damage dealer waiting for an opportunity to strike, and the Goddess of Shadows holding back the enemy from the side.

But it must be said that this plan was very inefficient.

With the meager damage from Sirius's dagger, stabbing Chamberlain to death would be a very lengthy process, and it was hard to say how long the Deadwood Sage could last.

But Chamberlain's misfortune lies in the fact that Gu Nan was also here.

The instant Chamberlain appeared, Gu Nan had already attacked at full power. The sword of shadows fell on him dead-on, forcing Chamberlain to raise his sword to block the attack.

Both were people who excelled in speed, exchanging hundreds of blows in an instant. Every strike from Gu Nan only advanced forward, leaving no room for retreat. They targeted the opponent's vitals, but Chamberlain blocked them all.

His reputation as a Sword Saint was well-deserved.

Gu Nan shrugged somewhat helplessly. In the mid- to late-stages of the game, all players will face this situation where NPCs' skills were also quite strong, not losing out at all to PVPs.

But this didn't really matter.

Just when Chamberlain thought he had a moment to catch his breath, Gu Nan rushed up fiercely, directly tanking the opponent's longsword with his stomach before leisurely thrusting his sword out.

A sword stuck on Gu Nan was not as easy to retrieve as when it was stuck on Aiden.

The corner of Chamberlain's mouth twitched slightly, and he was forced to leap, trying to dodge Gu Nan's attack in midair.

But after he dodged Gu Nan's shadow sword, he also no longer had space to move around, so Gu Nan slammed his head into Chamberlain's forehead without a second thought as a horrifying crack sounded…

A few seconds later, Classmate Shadow Sword Saint held his sword with one hand while his other hand covered his forehead, which was bleeding profusely.

Chamberlain was completely human. Even after becoming a god, his blood was still bright red, but now it looked a little miserable.

The grand Sword Saint was actually defeated with this kind of street thug fighting style.

Chamberlain ended up in a disadvantage in both exchanges. It wasn't that he was much weaker than Gu Nan, but that he had picked a riskier tactic in order to ultimately win, only to be completely countered by Gu Nan.

The wounded Chamberlain was still fighting hard. People who could make it this far did not lack perseverance and persistence.

In terms of willpower, Gu Nan was probably no match for his opponent, but the problem was… he didn't have to undergo any tests of willpower.

Any injury Gu Nan suffered would heal very quickly, and he didn't need to bother thinking about how to fight.

All Gu Nan needed to do was simply to stab his sword into Chamberlain's body, no matter the price.

A few moments later, Gu Nan was still standing there as good as new while Chamberlain's entire body was already covered in wounds.

After once again blocking an attack by the God of Thieves that came out of the void, Chamberlain let out a small sigh.

"It's my loss." He slowly sheathed his longsword and took the initiative to say, "From today onwards, the name of 'Shadow' belongs to your sect."

Sirius and Aiden exchanged a glance and finally sighed in relief. Sylvia still wanted to say something, but Chamberlain's figure had already disappeared.

Although the Sword Saint who lost the name of Shadow left, Karina still didn't leave. Instead, she walked up to Gu Nan.

"I will bring enough divine spears next time and find you again!" The Valkyrie clearly couldn't accept losing to Gu Nan like this.

"I'm just afraid you won't dare come," Gu Nan responded with a chuckle.

"Where do you live?"

"The Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, the one that just ascended to a greater god."

"..."

……

Gu Nan caused quite a stir after he came to the World of Gods, but this couldn't compare to what Rolensia stirred up.

A newly ascended greater god!

The birth of every greater god was an earth-shattering event, enough to directly change the situation in the World of Gods.

During this time, Rolensia was practically always busy. She had too many matters to handle and also too many people she needed to meet.historical

In particular, she didn't ascend through the normal method, instead taking this final step in the Myriad Heavens Universe, which attracted even more curiosity.

And so, the existence of the Heaven-God Alliance became equally well known in the World of Gods, and more and more gods tried to join.

"So, when can we head back?" Gu Nan asked as such within the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom.

In front of him were Xue Ren, Daoist Lingyang, and Mad Fist, the very same people who came from the Myriad Heavens.

The only one whose traces couldn't be seen since arriving here was Zi Luo Elder.

"Soon." Xue Ren answered with a smile, "In around a year at most, we will be able to return to the Myriad Heavens in style."

Mad Fist cut in from the side, "What's the point of going back? There are plenty of people to fight with here."

Unlike Gu Nan, who had to return to farm points, Mad Fist lived a comfortable life recently.

Not many people in the World of Gods knew his reputation, allowing him to easily find people to challenge. Oftentimes, his opponents still didn't know who he was even after the fight.

Of the people who came over from the Myriad Heavens Universe, if the rowdiest one was Gu Nan, then Mad Fist would undoubtedly be the second rowdiest person.

Gu Nan shrugged and expressed indifference to this.

Because of the lack of points, it wasn't convenient for him to accumulate too much Evil Value for the time being, but that wasn't a big problem.

Before stepping into Tier 9, time was still on his side, so there was no need for him to be in too much of a hurry.

And Xue Ren's response undoubtedly hinted at something; that outcome was not hard to guess.

Gu Nan's life turned peaceful again. His usual activities were just having tea with Xue Ren and Daoist Lingyang or playing two rounds of black cards with Sylvia.

Although Sylvia never won, nor did she ever come close to winning.

As the days slowly passed, the nine people who were sent out earlier returned one after another.

The result was a little worse than Gu Nan expected. Eight of the nine returned already, but only three completed a class change, even if all of them had the full walkthrough Gu Nan provided.

He was already prepared for this, so Gu Nan wasn't that disappointed. He simply told them to try again or switch to a different route.

Of course, before that, it was inevitable to recommend some people to pursue the "Phantom Sword Saint" route.

This kind of route that required a prerequisite mission to unlock usually had more powerful attributes and faster growth than normal routes.

"Who is still missing?" Gu Nan asked Lan Si, who had already returned.

"An Tiansheng. He picked the Bandit route."

Gu Nan remembered the teen who called himself a "bandit" and couldn't help revealing a trace of a smile. "The Bandit route does suit him well, but it's not easy to get that class."

"Since he's still not back yet, he most likely ran into trouble. Find out where he is," Gu Nan instructed as such, but he wasn't actually too concerned.

He left marks on all nine people. If there was a threat to their lives, he would be the first to know.

What he didn't expect was that just one day later, Lan Si came back and reported, "My Lord, I'm afraid An Tiansheng is in trouble… He stole something he shouldn't have stolen when selecting the Bandit route."

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The "routes" that players could select in the game were a very interesting feature.historical

Theoretically, a player could choose multiple routes, and rather than a class change, it was more like "learning from a master," and the skills learned were of course the player's to keep.

Each route had its own upper and lower limits, as well as stat and level requirements, but none of them would affect the player's own power.

These routes could also help one level up in a variety of ways, with "Bandit" being one of the more interesting ones.

The Bandit route can be acquired by stealing someone else's most precious treasure and obtaining power in exchange, and the quests and skills at the time of the class change will also be related to it.

Based on Gu Nan's experience, the target one needs to steal from during the class change quest always has either considerable strength or background and was never a fellow who could be easily messed with—don't ask why Gu Nan has experience with this.

Similarly, An Tiansheng stole from a dangerous fellow this time when trying to complete the class change.

"Daughter of God, Macefield. She's a daughter of god in the truest sense—both her parents are gods," Lan Si saw that Gu Nan wasn't concerned in the slightest and hurriedly reported gravely.

"Oh, Macefield, I know." But Gu Nan knew even more than Lan Si. "Daughter of the God of Iron and the Goddess of Sunlight. She likes to roast people into jerky at the drop of a hat."

Daughter of God Macefield was also a well-known NPC in the game.

Because not only did she live in a main plane, her strength was also Legend Rank, and her identity was also very special, so there were countless missions about her.

Neither of her parents were considered high ranking gods, but Macefield was their only daughter, so one could only imagine how spoiled she was.

The Goddess of Sunlight was a veteran Tier 7 god who'd remained at this level for a long time, so her network and forces were all extraordinary.

On the other hand, the God of Iron only just recently advanced to Tier 7, but there was strong momentum behind his growth, and it wasn't impossible for him to ascend to Tier 8 or even Tier 9 in the future.

It was precisely because of his potential that these two gods were able to get together.

Speaking of which, Gu Nan even had an indirect connection with the God of Iron before.

Back when Gu Nan went to the Undead Kingdom, he brought the Raymond clan to the Myriad Heavens as a reserve force for his Divine Kingdom. And before Gu Nan, the Raymond clan was precisely under the protection of the God of Iron.

"Macefield should've already been Legend Rank a long time ago, right? Looks like that child succeeded in his class change," Gu Nan said with a smile.

An Tiansheng was originally only Tier 3 and couldn't even be considered the peak of Tier 3. If he wanted to rob from the Tier 4 Macefield, he must've successfully acquired the Bandit class already.

"Yes." Lan Si nodded and continued, "And the item he stole—"

"What? He stole her panties?" Gu Nan immediately finished for her. He really had seen that kind of mission before.

The corners of Lan Si's mouth twitched slightly. "How can that be possible… He stole a crystal ball. It's said that Macefield issued a high reward to find An Tiansheng's whereabouts."

"Macefield's crystal ball, that's a good item!" Gu Nan couldn't help sighing with emotion.

The Bandit route was very special. It required players to steal the target's most treasured possession, but their most treasured possession may not necessarily be a good item.

So a situation like Macefield, where the value of the stolen item was extremely high, was especially precious.

"What is that?" Even Gu Nan thought it was something good, which made Lan Si inevitably grow a little curious.

"It's no longer of much use to me, but it's a good item for you guys." Gu Nan elaborated, "That crystal ball can store a person's soul. If you guys die outside, you can use this to resurrect."

Macefield's crystal ball, a necessary item for the Lich route, was the perfect phylactery to store a lich's soul.

Even those who weren't liches could also use this crystal ball to resurrect; they just needed someone else's help for that. It was considered one of the very best items before the First Round.

And the difficulty of obtaining this item wasn't high. Macefield was a sloppy young lady, so it was all too easy to con her into giving away this crystal ball.

Lan Si's eyes lit up. "Then we… will keep the crystal ball?"

"Of course!" Gu Nan looked at her strangely. "Someone actually wants to take back something that already fell into my hands?"

……

An Tiansheng was running swiftly through the jungle, carrying a wild wolf in his hand.

Don't be mistaken—he wasn't running for his life. Rather, he was busy rushing back to make a fire and cook dinner—today's dinner was roasted wolf meat.

An Tiansheng, who grew up in a bandit den, was no stranger to wilderness survival at all. The pursuers from Macefield were like a joke.

An Tiansheng only had to change places every two days and was even in the mood to improve his diet during this time.

Just as An Tiansheng was sitting on the barren ground, unhurriedly roasting wolf meat, a voice rang out.

"Looks like you're having a comfortable time," Lan Si had appeared beside him at some point and spoke in a clear, cold tone.

An Tiansheng, however, didn't look surprised in the slightest, as if he expected Lan Si's appearance long ago. He just took a big bite of the wolf meat and said, "When are you guys planning to take Laozi[1] back?"

Instead of answering his words, Lan Si's gaze turned colder. "Do you think you can beat me now?"

"That's right!" An Tiansheng fiercely tossed aside his wolf leg and swung his fist at Lan Si.

Then… he flew back at an even faster speed.

After all, Lan Si was someone who possessed a Godhead. After so many years of cultivation and accumulation, her power had long been pushed to the peak of Tier 4. She was only waiting to have an epiphany one day and take that final step to ignite the divine fire.

Even if he acquired the Bandit class, it was still completely impossible for An Tiansheng to surpass Lan Si, at least for the time being.

A few seconds later, An Tiansheng was standing beside Lan Si with a fawning expression. "Lord Lan Si, I was wrong!"

Lan Si glanced at him icily. "Come with me."

……

Within the Sunlight Divine Kingdom, a young blonde girl was tugging on the arm of a noblewoman and saying with a bitter expression, "Lord Mother, someone snatched my crystal ball… I swear I wasn't the one who caused trouble this time!"

These two were naturally Miss Macefield, as well as her mother, the Goddess of Sunlight Sandra.

The Goddess of Sunlight clearly didn't quite believe her daughter's words. She put down the brush in her hand, her gaze still resting on the canvas in front of her. "You really didn't provoke the other party first?"

"Absolutely not!" Macefield raised her finger and vowed, "Uncle Adam can testify for me. That person was clearly the one who came to steal my stuff for no reason!"

Sandra frowned slightly. Judging from her daughter's certain expression, she didn't seem to be lying… 'Then is there really a mortal who dares to bully my daughter?'

Thinking of this, Sandra no longer asked her daughter further questions and instead ordered the guards outside, "Tell Adam to come see me."

"Yes, Your Highness," the guards answered from outside the hall, followed by a flash of sunlight flying into the mortal realm.

T/N:

[1] Laozi: Addressing oneself as "your father" or a much senior role. Extremely rude

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"Did a thief really steal her crystal ball?" Sandra asked somewhat incredulously.

Her daughter's crystal ball was a good item—this Sandra knew for a long time. It was a gift her husband brought back from the Undead Kingdom for their daughter.

"But someone dared to rob my daughter… Could it be that the other party doesn't know who he's stealing from?"

"We thought the same thing until yesterday," Adam stood in front of the Goddess of Sunlight, but his tone was a bit grave, "but today we received news that someone took that bandit away… to the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom."

"Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom?" Sandra's expression suddenly froze, and the brush in her hand also stopped moving.

That was the Divine Kingdom of the newly-ascended greater god Rolensia. Even if her foundation couldn't compare to more established greater gods, she still wasn't someone a mere Tier 7 god like Sandra could offend.

The Goddess of Sunlight was silent for a while before finally ordering, "First, investigate that bandit's origins."

……

"Bring out the crystal ball," Gu Nan said to An Tiansheng, who was standing in front of him.

"I stole this with my own ability. Why should I give it to you?" An Tiansheng, who had been obedient up until that point, immediately changed color when he heard that he had to hand over his spoils of war.

"You robbed someone else, and I can also rob you. Will you hand it over yourself, or will you have me rob it?" Gu Nan asked with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

An Tiansheng's gaze darted around, and he ultimately took out the crystal ball while saying, "Boss, I have no problem giving you the goods, but you can't take it all, right?"

"When we used to share the spoils, the boss took the biggest share, but the brothers also had their share! Otherwise, who would be willing to work so hard to rob things?"

An Tiansheng painstakingly exhorted Gu Nan to not keep everything for himself and even brought up his time as a bandit as an example.

"You also have a point." Gu Nan revealed a contemplative look. "Then as payment, you can receive a chance to be resurrected."

"Resurrection?" An Tiansheng showed a puzzled look, not quite understanding.

"That's right. If you're killed outside, I can resurrect you as long as you leave a wisp of your soul with me."

An Tiansheng was instantly ecstatic. "Is there no price?"

Gu Nan laughed involuntarily. "Of course there is. The resurrection won't restore your power, so you'll have to start cultivating from scratch again."

"Still, that's quite good…" An Tiansheng mulled it over in his head, and it didn't take long for him to decide. "Deal!"

"Then, leave your soul in this." Gu Nan handed the crystal ball back to An Tiansheng.

……

Realizing that he seemed to have been tricked, Classmate An Tiansheng left with an indignant expression. After he left, Liang Ruixin soon appeared.

Liang Ruxin belonged to the portion of the nine who failed. He suffered a crushing defeat in the route challenge and didn't even get past the first level.

Gu Nan had long foreseen this, because the route Liang Ruxin chose really was bad… he chose the Scholar.

The majority of the Scholar's test wasn't related to strength. Rather, it tested the challenger's knowledge. In this aspect, how could Liang Ruxin compare to the players, who all had Baidu?

So when the first question appeared, asking him to observe the convergence of a limit, Liang Ruixin decisively chose to give up.historical

"How does it feel to challenge a completely unknown field?" Gu Nan asked with a smile as he comfortably sipped a kind of light green fruit juice.

Liang Ruxin revealed a bitter smile. "I am willing to follow the route you recommend, My Lord."

"Smart man." Gu Nan patted his shoulder. "Go try the Phantom Sword Saint first. With your foundation, there's hope for success."

"Yes."

The Phantom Sword Saint was a powerful route that could be used all the way to Tier 10, and the entry threshold was almost nonexistent, so it was a very high-quality route.

A true Phantom Sword Saint class could only be acquired when one was close to Tier 5, but anyone with outstanding qualifications could study under Chamberlain and simply take their time cultivating.

After giving Liang Ruxin a once-over of the main points of an apprenticeship under Chamberlain, Gu Nan then sent him back to prepare, while a new figure slowly appeared at that moment.

"Good afternoon, Your Excellency Gu Nan. This humble servant is McKenzie." It was a tall man wearing a black suit, but at this moment, he was bowing slightly with a respectful expression.

"Rolensia's subordinate?" Gu Nan raised his eyebrow. Rolensia had been so busy lately that he didn't expect her to have the time to send someone over to him.

"Master has already left for the Red River Divine Kingdom." As if he could see what Gu Nan was thinking, McKenzie explained with a light smile, "This humble servant is here for the matter regarding the Goddess of Sunlight and the Daughter of God."

……

In another location within the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, several men and women in neatly uniformed robes were discussing something.

"I heard that Miss Macefield's crystal ball was stolen, so Her Highness the Goddess of Sunlight sent someone over to negotiate."

"Who stole it?"

"One of the guests Her Majesty brought over from the Myriad Heavens Universe."

"The Myriad Heavens Universe? As expected, they're as barbaric as the people of the North!"

The Myriad Heavens regarded the gods on this side as barbarians; the reverse was true for this side.

These people were all Rolensia's apostles, and they were apostles responsible for managing the Divine Kingdom, so they possessed considerable authority.

"In my view, Her Majesty has already become a supreme existence, so why does she need to bother with Sandra?" The blue-haired woman among them said as such. Clearly, she wasn't a fan of the Goddess of Sunlight.

As an apostle, she wasn't supposed to call the gods by their names.

"Mind your tongue!" The youth beside her frowned at once. "Dira, remember our identities… McKenzie went to talk with that guest. Let's wait and see how he responds."

"You expect barbarians like them to hand over something they stole?" The previous blue-haired woman named Dira bristled again.

She wasn't biased—she despised both sides equally.

A person next to her interjected, "Her Majesty has just ascended, so we must be fair in our dealings and not leave a bad reputation."

"Exactly."

They were still talking when McKenzie finally walked in slowly, worry evident on his face.

"Well? Did that guest have a bad attitude?" The youth from earlier couldn't help asking after seeing McKenzie's expression.

"As a matter of fact, he didn't. That Lord Gu Nan is very polite." McKenzie revealed a troubled smile. Indeed, he didn't receive any negative response from Gu Nan.

"That's good then. That one doesn't seem like an unreasonable person," another apostle piped up.

This person had contact with Gu Nan and the others before and also witnessed Gu Nan and Sylvia playing cards together.

"Then you're wrong about that." McKenzie revealed a helpless look. "Do you guys still remember how two goddesses fought in Dragon Realm not long ago and destroyed Metallic Silver Island?"

"Of course. I heard that Her Highness Karina was injured, and even her weapon was broken… Rumor has it that Her Highness Sylvia must have gotten help from someone."

McKenzie nodded wordlessly, then took out two broken halves of a spear from behind him. "That one told me to give this to the Goddess of Sunlight, and he also said…"

The group of apostles immediately gathered around him and grabbed the spear shafts from McKenzie's hands.

"Could this be…?"

"Judging from the material and rank, it does look like it…"

"Don't gossip just yet—what else did that one say?"

McKenzie took a deep breath and imitated Gu Nan's tone, "Don't forget to return it after showing it to Sandra. This is very expensive."

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Of the nine people who were brought over, this pair of teen girl and boy were the youngest and also the most talented.

Young people, after all, had the characteristics of youths. They weren't calm and calculating like the others, who never even spoke up.

To reward their courage, Gu Nan was willing to teach them some life lessons.

The teenager thought for a long time and finally looked at Gu Nan. "If I can beat you one day, will you let me go?"

"If you can beat me, then it's not whether I let you go or not, but the other way around."

The youth nodded thoughtfully, then flung his sleeves fiercely without any of the earlier inexperienced air and declared like a bandit, "I, your father, will do this thing!"

"What's your name and what did you do originally?" Gu Nan looked at him.

"An Tiansheng, bandit."

……

An Tiansheng the bandit was fourteen years old, a fact that Gu Nan just learned.

But he didn't mind using child labor. As long as they could finish the tasks he assigned, he even dared to use four year olds.

At this time, the nine people were no longer in front of Gu Nan. Rather, they all remained inside a room, swiftly browsing through a pile of documents.

These were documents Gu Nan recently sorted out and contained information on player routes.

Routes were very important things. Instead of having Gu Nan get to know them one by one, it would be better to let them make their own choices first.

For the sake of secrecy, from the time they entered the room, they weren't allowed to leave until they selected the route they wanted to take.

And after choosing a route, they had to explain their own specialties, as well as the reasons for picking this route. After Gu Nan looked over their choice, only then would he direct them on the path to acquiring that class.

To Gu Nan's slight surprise, the first person to come out was not An Tiansheng, but the young girl.

"I'm Xie Yun, sir," perhaps Gu Nan's earlier words had an effect, because the young Xie Yun had a significantly better attitude, and her voice sounded crisp.

"Your chosen route is?"

"Firearms Specialist."

Gu Nan couldn't help smiling as he accepted the documents from Xie Yun. "This is not a class a normal person would choose."

Firearms Specialist was a very interesting class that could project firearms using energy. It was purely suppression through modern weaponry.

However, this also meant that this route didn't have a very high upper limit. It was useful only from around Tier 3 to Tier 6.

It could barely work in Tier 7, but any higher, and the abilities from a Firearms Specialist would be essentially useless, and the player would only be able to use their Evil God physique and their original laws in fights.

And since the people Gu Nan chose didn't have the Evil God Temple, that meant the Firearms Specialist route Xie Yun chose would at most have a combat power of low Tier 7.

Unless she changed her class later on and started all over again.

Of course, this was already a completely acceptable outcome for Xie Yun if her combat power could reach Tier 7. Not everyone wanted to head straight for Unified Dao.

"Have you ever seen a gun?" Gu Nan thought about it and asked.

"Of course." Xie Yun nodded. "I once went to a technological plane with very advanced weapon development!"

Xie Yun's eyes lit up as she talked. Gu Nan could already imagine what it was like for a young girl who grew up in a metaphysical plane to witness modern weapons for the first time in her life.

For lower level fights, modern weapons were indeed practical and cool, but they wouldn't work in slightly higher levels.

For example, with the strength of Gu Nan's current body, he could tank a nuclear explosion without any problem. Be it the heat, shockwave, or radiation, it was impossible to hurt him.

"Then let's try it," Gu Nan said as such, writing down some information and handing it to Xie Yun.

……

When the day of Shadow Cult's duel with Chamberlain arrived, all nine people that Lan Si brought over had been dispatched.

They went to their respective destinations to attempt the class change quests and acquire the class they wanted.

No one picked the Phantom Sword Saint route so far, but Gu Nan wasn't in a hurry. It would be pretty good if half of the nine successfully completed the class change.

Player routes weren't that easy to walk. Even normal players had a small chance of failing, let alone these NPCs with no game experience and average strength.

"Hey, it's time to go!" Sylvia had already gotten familiar with Gu Nan, so she didn't look polite at all. "I hope you're not defeated by a single strike from Chamberlain."

"My strength is as reliable as my card skills." Gu Nan said with a smirk, "If it goes well, you will welcome your 50th consecutive defeat this afternoon."

"You have no chivalry whatsoever! You'll never be favored by a lady," Sylvia bristled and grumbled.

The gods' dueling locations were also very special. To not affect mortals—mainly to preserve their reputations—they usually picked deserted planes to fight in.

This time was no different. Sirius and Aiden were already waiting when Gu Nan arrived.

"Your Excellency Gu Nan, I received a message just now." The extraordinarily handsome God of Thieves said, "Chamberlain might have a helper as well."

Sylvia frowned. "Is the helper he found qualified to intervene in this battle of ours?"

If any random person could intervene, then Sylvia would have way too many people to choose from and wouldn't have to rely on the annoying Gu Nan.

"Sylvia!" A slightly gruff female voice came from the horizon, immediately making Sylvia go pale.

The Valkyrie holding a golden spear instantly descended, and the spear came straight at Gu Nan.

Gu Nan didn't even raise his head and casually blocked with his hand. The golden spear struck his palm but didn't even leave a mark.

"Karina, this is a fight between our Shadow Cult and Chamberlain. Are you sure you want to interfere?" Sylvia's voice was slightly cold. If Karina intervened in this matter, then they would truly become enemies.

"I'm just here for this guy!" Karina wasn't stupid either. She pointed her spear at Gu Nan. "He beat me up once. Am I not allowed to take revenge?"

Sylvia couldn't help feeling enraged. "What's the difference between picking now of all times to seek revenge and helping Chamberlain?!"

Next to them, Aiden and Sirius had wry smiles.

They weren't like Sylvia, who had a powerful older brother. Based on their past experience with Karina, this one wouldn't listen to any attempt to reason.

Sure enough, Karina's next words were, "I don't care!"

As soon as those words fell, she didn't give Sylvia the opportunity to respond before thrusting her spear towards Gu Nan.

The golden spear shone with an astonishing radiance. Clearly, Karina already strengthened it with her own laws, quite unlike the casual jab just now.

Everyone's gazes landed on Gu Nan, wanting to see how he would respond. However… Gu Nan did not respond.

The spear pierced Gu Nan's chest unhindered, punching through his back and leaving a gruesome bloody hole.

Sylvia's eyes widened, and even Karina herself didn't expect for the opponent who once knocked her out to be so weak.

But she realized something was wrong the next second.

Gu Nan, whose chest was clearly impaled, gave a strange smile, while she was actually unable to pull her spear out. It seemed to be stuck inside her opponent.

After the spear entered the enemy's body, her laws were briefly suppressed, while Gu Nan raised one hand and grabbed the spear's shaft.historical

"Let me teach you all a lesson today." Gu Nan's voice remained calm as usual, making Sylvia feel slightly more at ease. "The Wrestling Goddess also has a weakness."

"What weakness!?" Karina asked before anyone else. She felt that she had already achieved the limit for her level. Her divine body was close to perfect, so it would be hard to improve on it anymore.

Her divine body was indeed perfect. Even Gu Nan had a hard time finding a way to kill her, but it was only a perfect divine body.

"Your attack is too low!" Gu Nan said rudely, "If not, why would you need to find the God of Blacksmiths just to forge this divine spear?"

As Gu Nan said this, he pointed at the golden spear that pierced his body and was currently gripped in one hand.

While Karina was still staring blankly, Gu Nan had already raised his other hand and slammed it down on the spear shaft with great force.

The divine spear, which accompanied Karina for tens of thousands of years, responded by breaking in half.

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It would be bizarre if there were no factions within an organization.

Internal conflicts exist within any group—this Gu Nan was well aware of, but it was really the first time he'd seen someone like Daoist Lingyang, who talked about factions so openly.

However, the old Daoist quickly gave his explanation.

One should know that all members of the Heaven-God Alliance were existences at the level of Star Rulers or gods, so they didn't have a high demand for resources. Thus, it could be said that there were rarely any direct conflicts of interest.

In this case, instead of devolving into a chaotic mess, it would actually be better to divide the organization into clear factions, which would be more convenient for management and collaboration.

After all, factions didn't necessarily have to be in conflict with each other; they could also have a cooperative relationship.

In Daoist Lingyang's vision, the future Heaven-God Alliance would exist in the form of an alliance of several major factions. This idea was also accepted by Xue Ren and Zi Luo Elder.

"That doesn't sound too bad." Gu Nan was no stranger to this kind of organization. In fact, a certain well-known assassin organization also used a similar organizational framework.

Since Gu Nan had no objections, Daoist Lingyang handed him a list of gods who had applied to join the Heaven-God Alliance.

"We need to assess the strength and goals of the applicants, mainly the latter," Daoist Lingyang explained.

The strength of various gods wasn't much of a secret. On the other hand, their motives for joining the Heaven-God Alliance warranted an investigation.

"Assess them in what way?" Gu Nan asked while looking at the names on the list.

"There are no restrictions. You can choose any method." Daoist Lingyang gave Gu Nan complete authority over the process. "It's fine even if you forgo an assessment altogether and just recruit people directly."

"But if something goes wrong, I, the faction leader, will need to be responsible?" Gu Nan raised an eyebrow.

"That's right. But 'faction leader' doesn't sound very impressive, so I'll have to think up a more imposing title in the future," Daoist Lingyang replied with a smile.

After knowing him for a while, one would realize that this old Daoist was actually quite a humorous person and wasn't as old-fashioned as he looked.

Allowing core members to become leaders of their respective factions and developing new members by developing their factions wasn't an inefficient choice.

And to ensure that no one would add people indiscriminately, there was also a reasonable accountability system holding the core members responsible for their factions.

It was no wonder that the other core members were so slow with their assessments. Perhaps they never had any intention of adding too many people in the first place.

As gods from this side, they already had their own network, so they could just directly choose people from there.

"Is Sylvia a core member?" The first thing Gu Nan thought of was naturally his card buddy.

"She has a lot of seniority, but she hasn't been very involved in the organization's affairs, so she's not considered core."

Daoist Lingyang paused a little, then added, "The older batch of members must also belong to a major faction. You can take Sylvia under your wing as long as she's willing."

Gu Nan nodded noncommittally, then circled two names on the list.

"I'll go with them. I think I have some idea of what these two are here for."

……

"You're actually going to accept Karina into the organization… I, I don't agree!"

In Gu Nan's room, card buddy Sylvia had just agreed to join Gu Nan's faction and was immediately shocked by the bombshell that followed.

That's right—one of the two names Gu Nan circled was none other than the Wrestling Goddess Karina.

"Oh." Gu Nan nodded at Sylvia's protest. "It's your turn to play a card."

"All you care about is playing cards!" The Goddess of Shadows angrily threw aside her cards. "Do you know why Karina wants to join the organization?"

"If it's not because of you, then it's because of me…" Gu Nan answered without the slightest care. "By the way, Karina's card skills aren't bad. Do you two want to try a round sometime?"

Sylvia left furiously, probably going off somewhere to find someone to complain to, while Gu Nan didn't care at all.

It was a waste to not use Karina, a combat power he can get for free. Besides, the one he was really interested in this time was the other god he chose.

David, the God of Labyrinths. His divine power was very special in nature and could create labyrinths impossible to escape from, as well as track something back to its origin.

His second ability was exactly what Gu Nan needed right now. historical

Gu Nan's Divine Kingdom was in the Myriad Heavens, so he wasn't able to farm too many points on this side, but there were still plenty of good items worth acquiring in this territory he was familiar with.

For example, after getting Karina's broken spear, one can use it to unlock a treasure that contains an item that can help the Divine Kingdom immensely.

However, Gu Nan hadn't done this mission before and was still considering how to find the treasure's location when David delivered himself to his door just in time.

……

In the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, Xue Ren and Daoist Lingyang were sitting across from each other.

"Gu Nan went to assess the newcomers, and Mad Fist ran off to challenge some gods. Are you still going to stop me?" Daoist Lingyang asked calmly as he stared at Xue Ren.

"Looks like you have already prepared everything." Xue Ren nodded, then sighed softly. "Still can't let go after all these years?"

Daoist Lingyang chuckled. "This is the only reason I joined the Heaven-God Alliance and have been planning for so many years—all for today."

"You won't wait until the old man finishes his breakthrough? All of us can help you then." This was one of the rare times where no smile could be seen on Xue Ren's face, only seriousness.

"Senior Zi Luo has already saved my life, and all of you from the Heaven-God Alliance have nothing to do with this matter, so why drag you guys into this mess?" Daoist Lingyang's expression was still full of calmness.

"You don't believe you have any chance of success." Xue Ren stared into his old friend's eyes.

……

When Gu Nan met this God of Labyrinths, his downtrodden appearance almost startled Gu Nan.

Speaking of which, Gu Nan had also met the God of Labyrinths when he was playing the game, and David certainly did not look this miserable back then.

The God of Labyrinths was dressed in tattered clothes, and his face was covered in dirt and grime, as if he was a beggar who had wandered for a long time.

"You are David, right? Your appearance…"

"Your Excellency Gu Nan." David revealed a bitter smile. "I'm afraid I can only appear like this for the near future… I accidentally offended that one from Mist Town."

Gu Nan instantly understood when he heard that and laughed. "You offended Diana? Your courage is commendable."

God of Poverty Diana, one of the Three Sisters of Misery. Offending her was equal to being cursed by the God of Poverty, the God of Decline, and the God of Misfortune at the same time.

David, the God of Labyrinths, was famous for his ability to attract aggro. He could always offend people no matter where he went. So as soon as Gu Nan saw his name, he knew that this one must have come to take refuge.

"You want to join the Heaven-God Alliance?" Gu Nan asked bluntly without beating around the bush.

"Yes, Your Excellency." David straightened his clothes, making himself look barely presentable.

"This humble one has long heard of your noble organization's impressive reputation, and—"

"Alright, drop the flattery," Gu Nan interrupted. He didn't believe that this fellow, who was always terribly busy all year round, would know much about the Heaven-God Alliance.

While speaking, he brought out Karina's divine spear again.

"These two spear shafts are stained with the blood of the first Blacksmith God. Help me find the source of the blood, and the Heaven-God Alliance will be able to protect you."

David's face stiffened. "The first generation Blacksmith God—that was during the First Great War. It would take an unimaginable amount of divine power to find him…"

Gu Nan tapped his arm with a broken spear. "You'll lose all your divine power if you can't find him."

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A residence was arranged for David.

Since he already came to the Luxuriant Blossoms Divine Kingdom, Gu Nan wasn't afraid he would escape. And even if they eventually had to set off to trace the blood back to its origin, there was no rush at the moment. At least, Gu Nan didn't want to travel with a beggar.

The Three Sisters of Misery were famous and also quite strong, but at the same time, they knew that their abilities were detested, so they didn't casually get into conflicts with people.

Even for someone like David, who habitually courted death, they would at most punish him slightly—he wouldn't be cursed for too long.

Gu Nan was in no hurry at the moment. When Rolensia first ascended, it took her two years just to prepare. Even if Zi Luo Elder's foundation was better, it would still take him a while.

For their level, it was perfectly normal for "soon" to mean a year.

"Gu Nan!" Karina went to Gu Nan. Clearly, she had already found out Gu Nan's identity.

The fact that Rolensia returned from the Myriad Heavens Universe and brought along a few guests from the Myriad Heavens was no secret among the gods.

"Let's fight!" Karina said as she held up a brand new golden spear and pointed it at Gu Nan from afar.

The spear looked no different from her original one, but both Gu Nan and Karina herself knew the difference.

If nothing else, the divine spear that had accompanied Karina for tens of thousands of years had absorbed the blood of hundreds of gods. This was rare for divine weapons.

"Why do you want to fight me?" Gu Nan asked this instead of attacking.

If it was someone else, Karina would've thrust her spear out without another word. But Gu Nan was, after all, someone who defeated her once, which earned him the right to have a conversation.

Karina tilted her head in thought. She didn't seem to have much of a grudge against this person. He was standing next to Sylvia when they first met…

"You attacked me!" Karina's simple brain circuits finally remembered that Gu Nan hadn't hesitated to punch her when the two first met.

Gu Nan nodded but didn't apologize at all. "I can help you get Austin."

Karina's spear, which was already close to stabbing Gu Nan, stopped instantly just then, and she quickly hid it behind her back.

"Th-that… Your Excellency Gu Nan…" Karina suddenly looked like a shy, polite girl, which wasn't convincing at all when combined with her appearance.

"If you act like this every time you see Austin, then it makes sense that he never fell for you." Gu Nan pursed his lips with a shake of his head.

Karina's bashful expression immediately vanished, and she glared fiercely at Gu Nan. If the latter couldn't give her an explanation, then the next strike from her divine spear would be an all-out attack.

"Theoretically, Austin will never see you that way in his life. At least, I haven't seen such an outcome yet." Gu Nan recalled the main storylines in his head and said seriously, "But there is one route where you guys end up together."

"What do I have to do?!" Karina blurted out, glossing over the parts she couldn't understand. Anyhow, many people said things that she didn't understand.

"Become a greater god before the next Great War." Gu Nan stared into her eyes. "Help the Light Faction achieve total victory and ascend to the pinnacle of all gods… By that time, you'll be able to marry whoever you want."

Karina's expression turned a little blank. True, she was a little of a nutjob, but she wasn't so nutty that she believed she could casually ascend to greater god.

The World of Gods only had twelve greater gods right now, and counting the just-ascended Rolensia and those who had fallen in earlier years, the total was less than twenty.

Of the billions of living beings in countless planes, fewer than twenty were able to take that final step. One could imagine the difficulty involved.

"What if I… can't do it?" Karina murmured.

"If you can't do it, then just wait till the next war." Gu Nan said matter-of-factly, "Austin doesn't have much room for improvement anymore, so you'll be able to catch up with him sooner or later as long as you work hard. Good luck, youngster. Power up with the power of love—you can do it."

……

Karina was indeed the paragon of powering up through love. The official explanation for her ability to start from Tier 8 and work her way up to the position of the leader of the Light Faction was "because of love."

Although this Wrestling Goddess did have some background, breaking through so many tiers so fiercely was beyond the scope of a golden finger's abilities.

Gu Nan didn't lie to Karina. In the game's many endings, this was the only way for her to get together with Austin.

Only when she advances to a greater god and personally participates in the next Great War—which would cause great chaos between the two major godly factions… only then would the Ruler of Light and Justice be knocked all the way down to mortality.

"But as long as she's with Austin, it doesn't matter if he's just a mortal, right?" Gu Nan couldn't help revealing a light smile as he thought of that ending.

It was also in Gu Nan's interest to encourage the next Great War.

The fact that his Divine Kingdom was located in the Myriad Heavens meant he couldn't think of ways to invade other gods' Divine Kingdoms and eliminate those few important gods while he was in the First Round.

This would leave him with a bit too many enemies to face after the Second Round. Only by triggering a Great War would he be able to reduce the pressure in the future.

A few days later, when the God of Labyrinths was finally freed from his curse and returned to dressing as a noble young lord, Karina approached Gu Nan once again.

"Why did you come here again?" Gu Nan was planning to take David with him and set off in search of the divine spear's origin.

After a few days of searching, David had basically determined their destination, which was inside the main plane that the Dark Faction had just acquired, the Atalante main plane.

"To fight!" Karina pointed her spear at Gu Nan again. "If I want to advance, I need to find someone to fight with!"

Gu Nan was taken aback for a while before finally nodding. "Come with me. I'll take you to a fight."

……

"Atalante, I'm back."

A somewhat indifferent voice calmly rang out. Xue Ren and Daoist Lingyang had just arrived, and Daoist Lingyang spoke just now.

The two were standing in a field of grass. Up ahead was a cemetery. People came and went, most of them holding a bouquet of chrysanthemums.

The atmosphere was slightly melancholy, yet the heavens didn't cooperate with some light sprinkles of rain. Instead, it was a bright, clear sky.

Daoist Lingyang slowly entered the cemetery, walking up to a tombstone with the skill of someone who'd done it countless times. Written on the tombstone was one Lady Margaret.

Judging from the date, it had been thousands of years since her death. historical

It was also a very rare thing for a tombstone to be preserved for thousands of years. Not only did it show that the tombstone was made of amazing materials, it also showed that the place had been cleaned from time to time.

"Apologies for the disturbance." A man who looked middle-aged came up to the two and looked at Daoist Lingyang in surprise. "Are you two gentlemen here for Lady Margaret?"

Daoist Lingyang frowned slightly. "And you are?"

"I am Hughton, Hughton Cable," Hughton made a point of emphasizing his last name. "Our family has been entrusted with guarding this lady's tombstone for a thousand years."

"Yes." Daoist Lingyang nodded. "I entrusted your family with that."

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After visiting Margaret's grave, Daoist Lingyang threw himself into intense preparations.

The chaos of war had just ended on the ancient continent of Atalante, with the Church of Light being completely destroyed and the Dark Empire ruling the continent.

From then on, this place fell under the Dark Faction's control.

This was the general trend of the World of Gods. Seven of the twelve greater gods were from the Dark Faction, and their strength was enough to crush the Light Faction.

If Austin hadn't saved the day by desperately supporting the Light Faction with his own strength, perhaps the World of Gods would have already lost sight of any light.

However, what Daoist Lingyang was doing at this very moment was to subvert the Dark Empire's rule—to be more accurate, he was trying to subvert the rule of its imperial family.

Order after order was issued, team after team was dispatched, and a plan countless years in the making was now revealing the tip of its iceberg now that Atalante was finally unified.

"Gu Nan and Karina have come to Atalante," Xue Ren suddenly spoke up while Daoist Lingyang was writing furiously.

Xue Ren was responsible for receiving information from the Heaven-God Alliance, so he was the first to know.

There was a slight lurch to Daoist Lingyang's movements, but then he said, "Gu Nan has taken in the God of Labyrinths. He's most likely looking for some kind of ancient relic. It has nothing to do with us."

Atalante was very large. Gu Nan going on a treasure hunt didn't conflict with his own plans.

"You really won't consider having the two of them do you a favor?" Xue Ren asked with a small smile.

This time, Daoist Lingyang's movements didn't pause as he casually replied, "I don't screw over my allies."

"So, I'm not one of your allies?" Xue Ren pretended to be angry, glaring at him.

"You jumped into this mess yourself."

……

Atalante was indeed huge. There weren't many main planes in the entire World of Gods to begin with, and this was one of them.

It was even rarer to find a main plane under the complete control of the Dark Faction. It meant this place could be managed and developed in a unified manner, with the power of faith being harvested with the highest efficiency.

Gu Nan brought Karina and David to a strange place.

This place originally seemed to be a small mountain range, but it was shrouded by a marvelous power, forming a garden.

"The first-generation Blacksmith God created the divine spear right here, and he used his own blood to water this divine weapon. His blood evaporated into mist and affected the surrounding laws," David's hollow pupils slowly returned to normal while he spoke.

"There are several Legend Rank humans occupying this place." Karina raised her head to glance ahead. The layer of mist outside the garden seemed completely useless against her.

Gu Nan, on the other hand, was no stranger to this place. "This is the Garden of Spirits… I didn't realize the divine spear was forged here."

Atalante produced countless missions because of its constant war, so Gu Nan was quite familiar with this continent.

Gu Nan took out the two broken spear halves, and sure enough, he saw a shimmering light emanating from them. This was the result of the item the Blacksmith God left behind back then resonating with the divine spear.

"Is this my spear?" Karina stuck her head over.

"It's mine now," Gu Nan emphasized.

Karina couldn't help rolling her eyes and raised the new divine spear in her hand. "It's merely a masterpiece of the first Blacksmith God."

True. If it hadn't been bathed in the blood of countless gods, just in terms of the forging technique and materials, the first Blacksmith God was definitely no match for the current one.

Time passed, and gods also advanced. The belief that gods who existed in ancient times were more powerful than the current gods had always been nonsense.

But what Gu Nan cared about wasn't the weapon itself, but what it represented.

The first Blacksmith God was the Blacksmith God who had been in office the longest. In other words, he also amassed wealth unimaginable to ordinary gods.

After all, it cost money to seek him out to forge a divine weapon.

And according to the background in the game, all of his truly amazing goodies were left behind in the place where he forged this divine spear.

"Why did the first Blacksmith God do this?" Karina couldn't help wondering after hearing Gu Nan's narration.

She was born much later than the first Blacksmith God and wasn't the first owner of the divine spear, so she didn't know much about it.

"This divine spear, which he called Muse, was the highest achievement of his life, although it doesn't seem like much nowadays," Gu Nan explained flatly.

This was the power of technological innovation, and even more so, the power of knowledge.

At least, the first Blacksmith God did not understand materials science, and his proudest divine spear was hard enough but weak in shear resistance, so it was easily smashed by Gu Nan.

"Go in," Gu Nan said without further elaboration.

The Garden of Spirits was nothing more than the stronghold of a few Legend Rank mortals, so the three gods weren't concerned about them in the slightest. They didn't even have any intention of hiding their tracks as they directly stepped inside.

A shadow instantly floated up to them the second the three stepped inside, lowering its gaze respectfully but uttering words that weren't necessarily respectful.

"Your Highnesses, the Garden of Spirits is under the protection of Archmage Claude, and we are believers of the Tenebrosity Divine Kingdom."

The Tenebrosity Divine Kingdom was the Divine Kingdom of the God of Tenebrosity Lewis, and Archmage Claude was Lewis's spokesperson on this continent.

The laws of the God of Tenebrosity and the Goddess of Darkness were extremely similar. While this certainly caused Lewis to practically lose all hope of stepping into the greater god realm, it also gave him strength far beyond his peers.

With origin laws like light and darkness, as long as the person who obtained it wasn't too stupid, they would always end up pretty well off.

"So this is Lord Lewis's territory." David nodded. His face didn't betray anything, but he was already planning to retreat.

Main planes were very special existences where powerhouses at the greater god level couldn't personally descend. At best, they could only launch a long-distance attack from another plane, so powerful gods like Lewis were the main force in raiding main planes.

In fact, on the continent of Atalante, the Dark Empire's imperial family was none other than Lewis's bloodline descendants.

So it wasn't at all unusual for Gu Nan and the others to run into Lewis's forces, as his faction was the most powerful people on this continent to begin with.

David only came here to look for treasure under Gu Nan's "coercion." He absolutely didn't want to offend Lewis because of this.

Of course, this was also because the person in front of him was respectful enough. Otherwise, the dignity of a god was not something a mere Legend Rank could offend.

David was ready to retreat. Even if it was Lewis's territory, it was still fine for the three of them to sneak in.

However, he never could've imagined that Gu Nan wouldn't even say a word before half of a divine spear was already embedded into the person before them.

Gu Nan was using Karina's broken spear, which directly shattered the newly solidified shadow, and even the entire Garden of Spirits began to shake.

"It's going to collapse." Gu Nan raised his head nonchalantly, knowing that the one he just killed was most likely the garden's manager.

"Your Excellency Gu Nan…" David's mouth turned a little dry. "If you just kill him so directly, won't it…?" historical

"It's fine. It'll be a while before news reaches Lewis," Gu Nan said while raising the broken spear in his hand. "And didn't I find a scapegoat already?"

Shifting the blame 2.0.